- 


GARRISON 


THE 


NON-RESISTANT 


By 
ERNEST   CROSBY 


Author  of 


'PLAIN  TALK  IN  PSALM   AND  PARABLE,"  "CAPTAIN 
JINKS,  HERO,"  "SWORDS  AND  PLOUGHSHARES," 
"TOLSTOY  AND  HIS  MESSAGE,"  "TOLSTOY 
AS  A  SCHOOLMASTER,"  "BROAD 
CAST,"  ETC. 


CHICAGO: 
THE  PUBLIC  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

FIRST  NATIONAL  BANK  BUILDING 


FROM  lips  that  Sinai's  trumpet  blew 
We  heard  a  tender  under-song  ; 
Thy  very  wrath  from  pity  grew, 

From  love  of  man  thy  hate  of  wrong. 

— WHITTIER,  "To  Garrison.' 


CHAPTER  I 
THE   LIBERATOR 

In  a  small  chamber,  friendless  and  unseen, 
Toiled  o'er  the  types  one  poor,  unlearned  young  man; 

The  place  was  dark,  unfurnitur«d  and  mean; 
Yet  there  the  freedom  of  a  race  began. 

—LOWELL,  "To  Garrison." 

Oliver  Johnson  gives  a  graphic  description 
of  the  room  under  the  eaves  of  Merchants' 
Hall,  Boston,  in  which  Garrison  printed  the 
early  numbers  of  his  Liberator  in  January, 
1831.  "The  dingy  walls,  the  small  windows 
bespattered  with  printer's  ink,  the  press  stand 
ing  in  one  corner,  the  composing  stands 
opposite,  the  long  editorial  and  mailing  table 
covered  with  newspapers,  the  bed  of  the 
editor  and  publisher  on  the  floor — all  these," 
he  tells  us,  "make  a  picture  never  to  be  for 
gotten."  "It  was  a  pretty  large  room,"  says 
a  later  visitor,  "but  there  was  nothing  to 
relieve  its  dreariness  but  two  or  three  very 
common  chairs  and  a  pine  desk  in  the  far 
corner  at  which  a  pale,  delicate  and  apparently 
overtasked  gentleman  was  sitting.  .  .  . 
He  was  a  quiet,  gentle  and  I  might  say  hand 
some  man."  The  editor  and  his  partner, 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

Isaac  Knapp,  Hved  for  more  than  a  year 
/•chieily  upon  breid  and  milk,  a  few  cakes  and 
a  little  fruit,  obtained  from  a  baker's  shop 
opposite  and  a  petty  cake  and  fruit  shop  in 
the  basement,  and  were  sometimes  on  short 
commons  at  that."  Here  they  worked  four 
teen  hours  a  day  at  the  manual  labor  of  their 
enterprise.  Garrison  was  at  this  time  only 
six-and-twenty,  and  he  had  just  been  released 
from  Baltimore  jail,  where  his  sympathy  for 
the  slave  had  placed  him.  He  had  no  money, 
no  subscribers,  and  scarcely  a  friend,  but  he 
procured  some  well-worn,  second-hand  type, 
and  went  forward  against  the  Goliath  of 
slavery  with  the  calm  assurance  of  a  David 
"choosing  him  five  smooth  stones  out  of  the 
brook."  And  indeed  the  language  which  he 
holds  differs  not  essentially  from  that  of  the 
Hebrew  shepherd.  Thus  spake  David :  "Thou 
comest  to  me  with  a  sword  and  with  a  spear 
and  with  a  shield,  but  I  come  to  thee  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts;  .  .  .  this 
day  will  the  Lord  deliver  thee  into  my  hand." 
In  the  first  number  of  his  journal  the  penni 
less  and  friendless  Garrison  delivered  himself 
as  follows: 

I  determined  at  every  hazard  to  lift  up 
the  standard  of  emancipation  in  the  eyes 
of  the  nation  within  sight  of  Bunker  Hill 
and  in  the  birthplace  of  liberty.  That 
standard  is  now  unfurled,  and  long  may  it 

8 


The   Liberator 

float,  unhurt  by  the  spoliation  of  time  or 
the  missiles  of  a  desperate  foe — yea,  till 
every  chain  be  broken  and  every  bondman 
free!  Let  Southern  oppressors  tremble — 
let  their  secret  abettors  tremble— let  their 
Northern  apologists  tremble — let  all  the 
enemies  of  the  persecuted  blacks  tremble. 
...  I  will  be  as  harsh  as  truth  and  as 
uncompromising  as  justice.  On  this  sub 
ject  I  do  not  wish  to  think  or  speak  or 
write  with  moderation.  ...  I  am  in 
earnest — I  will  not  equivocate — I  will  not 
excuse — I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch — 
and  I  will  be  heard.  .  .  .  Posterity  will 
bear  testimony  that  I  was  right. 

The  picture  of  this  shabby  room  with  the 
pale  young  man  at  the  case  deserves  to  hang 
in  the  rotunda  of  the  National  Capitol,  next  to 
those  of  Columbus  landing  on  the  shores  of 
the  new  world  and  Washington  receiving  the 
sword  of  Cornwallis. 

Who  was  this  rash  and  intemperate  fellow, 
who  dared  for  many  years  to  shock  every 
respectable  fiber  in  the  character  of  New 
Englander  and  Northerner  as  well  as  of 
Southerner?  '  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was 
born  at  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  in 
1805,  the  eldest  of  three  children.  When  he 
was  three  years  old,  his  father,  who  "followed 
the  sea"  and  had  taken  to  drink,  deserted  his 
wife  and  family  and  was  never  heard  of  more. 
They  were  left  utterly  destitute,  and  the 
mother,  a  noble  woman,  supported  her  babes 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

by  going  out  as  a  monthly  nurse.  She  also 
made  candy,  which  Lloyd  peddled  about 
town.  He  was  apprenticed  to  a  boot-maker 
at  an  early  age,  and  afterwards  to  a  cabinet 
maker,  but  he  had  neither  the  strength  nor 
the  mechanical  skill  necessary  for  these 
occupations.  At  last,  when  he  was  thirteen 
years  old,  he  found  his  proper  place  in  the 
printing  office  of  the  Newburyport  "Herald." 
He  soon  became  an  expert  at  the  types,  a 
fellow  printer  testifying  that  he  could  work 
faster  than  anyone  he  had  ever  seen  with 
one  exception,  and  that  he  was  far  more 
accurate  than  this  solitary  rival.  At  sixteen 
he  began  to  write  for  the  paper,  sending  in 
his  contributions  anonymously  by  the  post. 
His  first  article  arrived  in  this  way  while  he 
was  engaged  in  setting  up  type,  and  his 
employer  read  it  aloud  approvingly  in  his 
presence,  and  turned  it  over  to  its  author  to 
set  up,  little  guessing  his  identity.  Long 
before  his  apprenticeship  of  seven  years 
expired,  Garrison  was  practically  the  sub 
editor  of  the  newspaper.  At  twenty-one  he 
had  a  journal  of  his  own,  the  Free  Press,  in 
his  native  town,  and  he  distinguished  his  six 
months'  interest  in  this  sheet  by  discovering 
Whittier.  The  future  poet  was  then  a  clumsy, 
half-taught  farmer's  lad  of  eighteen.  He  had 
already  begun  to  write  verses,  and  his  sister, 
without  his  knowledge,  sent  some  of  them  to 

10 


The   Liberator 

the  Free  Press.  Garrison  at  once  recognized 
their  merit  and  published  them.  He  drove 
over  to  Haverhill  to  see  the  author  and  found 
him  working  in  the  fields  barefoot.  It  was 
this  encouragement  that  confirmed  Whittier 
in  his  career  and  induced  him  to  seek  further 
education.  As  Garrison's  venture  at  home 
was  not  sufficiently  successful,  he  removed  to 
Boston.  Two  years  later  he  is  editor  of  the 
first  total  abstinence  paper  ever  published, 
the  National  Philanthropist,  and  in  its  col 
umns  he  also  declares  his  opposition  to  war. 
The  year  1828  was  the  turning  point  of 
Garrison's  life,  and  his  conversion  to  the 
cause  of  the  slave  was  the  work  of  a  Quaker 
who  had  already  devoted  thirteen  years  of 
his  life  to  that  object.  Benjamin  Lundy  had 
given  up  a  profitable  business  at  a  great 
sacrifice  to  edit  an  anti-slavery  newspaper 
and  urge  the  formation  of  anti-slavery 
societies.  He  was  now  the  editor  of  the 
Genius  of  Universal  Emancipation,  which  he 
conducted  at  Baltimore,  and  in  which  he 
advocated  gradual  Abolition  and  the  coloni 
zation  of  freedmen  in  Hayti.  He  traveled  all 
over  the  country  on  foot  in  the  prosecution 
of  his  designs,  walking  in  this  way  thousands 
of  miles.  Visiting  Boston  in  1828,  he  hap 
pened  to  board  at  the  house  in  which  Garri 
son  was  living,  and  the  latter  was  much 
impressed  by  the  spirit  of  the  missionary. 

ii 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

Lundy  tried  to  rouse  the  Boston  clergy  to  an 
interest  in  his  plans,  and  to  induce  them  to 
form  an  anti-slavery  society.  He  invited 
them  to  a  private  meeting,  but  only  a  few 
responded,  and  of  these  only  eight  would 
go  so  far  as  to  recommend  his  paper.  One 
or  two  expressed  their  readiness  to  take  part 
in  an  active  movement,  but  they  were  men  of 
small  weight  in  the  community.  All  of  those 
who  attended  the  meeting  were  opposed  to 
slavery,  but  with  one  consent  most  of  them 
made  excuse.  "It  would  enrage  the  South  to 
know  that  an  anti-slavery  society  existed  in 
Boston."  "It  would  do  harm  to  agitate  the 
subject."  The  project  of  a  society  had  to  be 
abandoned. 

But  if  Lundy  had  failed  with  the  clergy, 
he  had  inspired  one  more  powerful  than  they 
were.  Garrison  was  at  the  meeting,  and  was 
scandalized  at  the  cowardice  of  these,  the 
bravest  representatives  of  the  churches.  A 
sudden  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  Negro 
freedom  seized  him.  He  began  at  once  to 
attack  slavery  in  his  temperance  paper,  and 
announced  as  his  triple  aim  the  abolition  of 
slavery,  intemperance  and  war.  Soon  after  this 
he  went  to  Bennington,  Vermont,  to  take 
charge  of  a  newspaper  which  was  sup 
porting  the  re-election  of  President  John 
Quincy  Adams.  In  this  journal  Garrison  con 
tinued  to  denounce  slavery,  to  insist  on  its 

12 


The   Liberator 

abolition  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  and 
to  suggest  the  formation  of  anti-slavery 
societies.  The  hunting  of  escaped  slaves  was 
common  at  this  time  in  the  North,  and  occa 
sionally  they  preferred  death  to  capture.  Yet 
with  such  things  taking  place  before  their 
eyes,  the  population  was  blind  to  the  iniquity 
of  the  system  which  rendered  them  possible. 
Garrison's  management  of  the  new  paper  was 
most  successful.  We  have  Horace  Greeley's 
authority  for  the  statement  that  it  was  "about 
the  most  interesting  newspaper  ever  issued 
in  Vermont." 

Lundy  at  Baltimore  had  watched  the  course 
of  his  disciple  with  pleasure,  and  in  1829  he 
came  to  Bennington,  walking  much  of  the 
way,  to  persuade  him  to  join  him  in  editing 
the  Genius.  Garrison  did  not  hesitate  for  a 
moment  to  follow  his  friend's  example  and  to 
give  up  a  promising  career  for  the  certain 
want  and  hardship  of  a  life  consecrated  to  the 
liberation  of  the  slave.  He  proceeded  to 
Baltimore,  and  in  September  his  name  appears 
with  Lundy's  in  the  latter's  paper.  His 
experiences  at  Baltimore  accentuated  his 
hatred  of  slavery.  He  saw  the  auction  of 
Negoes  continually  in  progress,  for  many  poor 
wretches  were  sold  here  and  shipped  to  the 
New  Orleans  market.  With  his  own  ears  he 
heard,  while  walking  in  the  streets  of  the  city, 
"the  distinct  application  of  a  whip  and  the 

13 


Garrison  the   Non-Resistant 

shrieks  of  anguish"  of  the  victim.  One  slave  ex 
hibited  to  him  his  back  bleeding  from  thirty- 
seven  terrible  gashes  inflicted  by  a  cowhide 
thong.  The  courage  of  both  editors  in  these 
surroundings  knew  no  bounds,  and  in  their 
columns  they  openly  rebuked  the  worst 
offenders  by  name.  On  one  occasion  Garri 
son  heard  of  slaves  being  shipped  in  a  vessel 
belonging  to  a  prominent  citizen  of  Newbury- 
port.  He  immediately  began  an  attack  upon 
him  in  the  Genius,  printing  his  name  in  capi 
tals.  He  branded  him  and  men  like  him  as 
"the  enemies  of  their  own  species — highway 
robbers  and  murderers."  The  result  of  this 
plain  speaking  was  an  indictment  for  mali 
cious  libel.  Garrison  was  tried  by  a  jury, 
found  guilty,  and  sentenced  to  the  payment 
of  a  fine  of  fifty  dollars  and  costs,  amounting 
in  all  to  over  one  hundred  dollars,  a  sum  far 
greater  than  he  could  raise,  if  he  felt  disposed 
to.  In  consequence  he  passed  seven  weeks  in 
jail,  and  while  there  he  prepared  a  pamphlet 
giving  an  account  of  his  trial,  which  attracted 
attention  far  and  wide,  and  also  devoted  him 
self  to  his  fellow-prisoners,  drawing  petitions 
for  pardon  for  several  of  them.  He  was 
finally  released  through  the  liberality  of  a 
New  York  merchant,  Arthur  Tappan,  and  he 
came  out  of  prison  undaunted  and  in  buoyant 
spirits.  Meanwhile  the  Genius  had  ceased  to 
appear  on  account  of  lack  of  support,  and  the 


The   Liberator 


\ 


partnership  with  Lundy  was  of  necessity  dis 
solved. 

As  Garrison  had  no  longer  any  reason  for 
remaining  in  Baltimore,  he  returned  to  Bos 
ton,  and  in  August,  1830,  he  issued  proposals 
there  for  a  paper  of  his  own.  He  also  began 
to  lecture  on  slavery.  When  he  advertised 
for  a  free  hall  in  Boston  for  an  anti-slavery 
address  not  a  church  volunteered,  although 
it  was  the  custom  of  the  time  to  hold  all 
kinds  of  meetings  in  churches,  but  a  favor 
able  response  was  received  from  an  "infidel" 
society.  It  was  actually  a  fact  that  at  that 
period  Garrison  was  almost  the  only  man  in 
New  England  whose  eyes  were  entirely  open 
to  the  sin  of  slavery. 

On  January  ist,  1831,  the  first  number  of 
the  Liberator  made  its  appearance.  At  the 
head  of  its  columns  was  the  motto,  "Our 
country  is  the  World.  Our  countrymen  are 
Mankind;"  and  it  was  further  ornamented  by 
a  wood-cut  representing  a  slave-auction  block 
and  whipping  post  with  the  dome  of  the 
Capitol  at  Washington  in  the  •  background. 
This  initial  number  struck  one  note  which 
distinguished  it  at  once  from  all  other  anti- 
slavery  publications.  It  called  for  immediate 
and  unconditional  emancipation.  Until  recently 
Garrison  had  believed  in  the  gradual  freeing 
of  the  slaves,  but  on  thinking  the  matter  over 
he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  immoral 

15 


Garrison  the   Non-Resistant 

to  favor  the  continuance  for  an  hour  of  a 
system  which  is  morally  wrong.  This  novel 
"immediatism,"  as  it  was  dubbed,  coupled 
with  the  intentional  harshness  of  the  editor's 
vocabulary,  which  was  in  striking  contrast 
with  his  manner  in  private  life — these  two 
peculiarities  of  the  Liberator  made  it  a 
mighty  force  almost  from  the  beginning.  The 
slave-holders  themselves  did  much  to  make 
the  paper  widely  known,  proving  once  again 
that  nothing  helps  a  cause  so  much  as  a 
strong  opposition.  Taunted  with  being  "man- 
stealers,"  they  were  soon  goaded  into  a  fury. 
The  legislature  of  Georgia  offered  a  reward 
of  five  thousand  dollars  for  Garrison's  capture. 
Throughout  the  South  demands  were  made 
that  the  State  of  Massachusetts  should  put  a 
stop  to  the  incendiary  publication  and  arrest 
the  editor  with  or  without  the  law.  The 
public  officials  of  the  slave  states  inaugurated 
a  system  of  examining  the  mails  and  throw 
ing  out  all  pamphlets  and  circulars  reflecting 
on  slavery,  and  this  plan  was  followed  for 
many  years  in  flagrant  violation  of  the  postal 
laws.  The  high-handed  conduct  of  the  South 
produced  a  double  effect  in  the  North.  A 
large  portion  of  the  community  was  in  favor 
of  humbly  submitting  to  all  the  claims  made 
upon  them,  either  from  sympathy  with  slav 
ery  or  from  a  craven  desire  for  peace;  but 
there  were  many  who,  while  by  no  means 

16 


The    Liberator 

approving  of  Abolition,  still  cherished  some 
prejudices  in  favor  of  the  freedom  of  white 
men,  and  were  forced  by  the  overbearing 
insolence  of  the  slave-holders  in  some  degree 
to  sustain  Garrison  in  the  right  of  free 
speech.  The  Abolitionists  themselves,  whose 
cause  had  dragged  on  without  result  for 
many  years,  in  spite  of  the  sincerity,  ability 
and  vigor  of  Lundy,  for  want  of  a  definite 
programme,  at  once  recognized  the  fact  that 
their  true  leader  had  appeared;  and  most  of 
them  flocked  to  his  banner,  although  Lundy 
himself,  who  died  in  1839,  never  became  an 
immediatist. 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   BOSTON   MOB 

Woe  unto  you!  for  ye  build  the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets, 
and  your  fathers  killed  them. — St.  Luke,  xi:47. 

In  1831  Garrison  founded  the  New  England 
Anti-Slavery    Society    at  Boston,  and    began 
to  lecture  in  its  behalf.    This  was  followed 
by  the  formation  of  a  great  number  of  such 
/todies,  state  and  local,  including  the  national 
^society  founded  at  Philadelphia  in  1833.     For 
some  years  associations  were   established  at 
the  rate  of  more  than  one  a  day,  and  a  single 
society  sometimes  numbered  its  members  by 
the   thousand.     Garrison's  talents  for   public 
speaking  stood  him  in  good  stead  in  promot 
ing  the  formation  of  these  bodies.     He  was 
not  an  orator,  but  the  force,  earnestness  and 
logic  of  his  addresses  almost  always  carried 
/his  audiences  with  him.     The  first  great  con- 
/  test  in  which   Garrison  had  to   engage  was 
V  between  the  "immediatists"  and  the  American 
\Colonization    Society,    an    institution    whose 
chief  function  was  to  put  the  conscience  of 
the  people  at  rest  under  the  delusion  that  the 

18 


The   Boston   Mob 

Negroes  could  be  deported  to  Hayti  or 
Liberia,  but  which  in  reality  was  only  effect 
ive  in  removing  freedmen  whose  efforts  on 
behalf  of  their  brethren  in  bonds  were  feared 
by  the  slave-holders,  and  the  latter  were  by 
no  means  unfriendly  to  this  movement.  Gar 
rison  exposed  the  plan  thoroughly  in  a 
pamphlet  published  in  1832,  and  a  twelve 
month  later,  on  a  special  mission  to  England, 
he  won  over  the  principal  Abolitionists  there 
to  immediatism  as  opposed  to  colonization, 
including  the  venerable  Wilberforce.  Six 
years  afterwards,  on  another  visit  to  Great 
Britain,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of  securing 
the  adhesion  of  Clarkson,  who  hitherto  had 
been  induced  by  misrepresentation  to  support 
the  colonizationists.  In  America  it  so< 
became  clear,  owing  to  Garrison's  exposui 
of  it,  that  colonization  meant  the  indefinite 
continuance  of  slavery.  Among  the  humon 
of  his  first  stay  in  London  was  a  dinner 
party  at  which  his  host  on  receiving  him  and 
hearing  his  name  lifted  up  his  hands  and 
exclaimed,  "Why,  my  dear  sir,  I  thought  that 
you  were  a  black  man,  and  I  have  conse 
quently  invited  this  company  of  ladies  and 
gentlemen  to  be  present  to  welcome  Mr. 
Garrison,  the  black  advocate  of  emancipation 
from  America!"  He  had  in  fact  supposed 
that  no  white  American  could  plead  for  the 
slave  as  he  had  done  in  the  Liberator.  This 

19 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

was  a  compliment  to  the  editor  indeed !  Gar 
rison  attended  Wilberforce's  funeral  at  West 
minster  Abbey,  an  humble  follower  in  a  dis 
tinguished  throng,  but  destined  to  do  even 
more  for  the  African  race  than  the  great 
Englishman. 

On  landing  at  New  York  on  his  return 
from  England  in  1833,  Garrison  was  present 
at  a  meeting  called  for  the  purpose  of  organ 
izing  a  City  Anti-Slavery  Society.  The 
enemies  of  the  movement  had  issued  circu 
lars  calling  for  a  pro-slavery  demonstration 
at  the  same  time  and  place,  with  the  object 
of  breaking  up  the  meeting,  and  a  mob  of 
drunken  blackguards  came  together  in  conse 
quence  and  succeeded  in  bringing  the  meeting 
to  a  violent  close.  The  Courier  and  Enquirer 
had  much  to  do  with  fomenting  the  riot  on 
this  occasion  and  the  Commercial  Advertiser 
and  other  "respectable"  newspapers  joined  in 
denouncing  Garrison.  The  Evening  Post 
said :  "We  should  be  sorry  that  any  invasion 
of  his  personal  rights  should  occur  to  give 
him  consequence  and  to  increase  the  number 
of  his  associates."  When  Garrison  reached 
Boston,  he  found  that  there,  too,  circulars 
had  preceded  him,  calling  upon  the  public  to 
meet  in  front  of  his  office  on  a  given  evening 
armed  with  plenty  of  tar  and  feathers,  but 
although  a  dense  mob  breathing  threatenings 

20 


The    Boston   Mob 

which  foreboded  a  storm  came  together,  they 
dispersed  without  doing  any  damage. 
——The  angry  temper  of  the  Northern  public 
had  also  been  shown  elsewhere.  In  Connecti 
cut,  in  1833,  Prudence  Crandall,  who  had 
established  a  school  for  colored  girls,  was 
shut  out  of  the  churches,  shops  and  public 
conveyances ;  her  well  was  filled  with  manure, 
and  her  house  smeared  with  filth  and  at  last 
set  on  fire.  At  Boston  the  directors  of  the 
Athenaeum  library  excluded  Mrs.  Child  from 
using  it  because  she  was  an  Abolitionist. 
When  anti-slavery  sentiment  made  itself 
audible  at  Lane  Theological  Seminary,  the 
trustees,  with  the  assent  of  the  president,  Dr. 
Lyman  Beecher,  suppressed  all  debate  on  the 
subject.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon  accused 
candidates  for  elective  office  who  were  willing 
to  array  themselves  under  the  banner  of  the 
Abolitionists,  with  being  "political  desper 
adoes  ;"  and  the  American  Bible  Society  actu 
ally  refused  a  gift  of  five  thousand  dollars 
which  was  to  be  devoted  to  the  distribution 
of  Bibles  among  the  slaves!  The  great 
church  assemblies  showed  their  friendship  for 
slavery  in  many  ways,  and  a  Presbyterian 
elder  did  not  hesitate  to  say  in  the  General 
Assembly  of  that  denomination  at  Pittsburg, 
in  1835,  that  the  church  was  the  patron  of 
slavery  and  responsible  for  its  cruelties. 
Throughout  the  whole  period  of  agitation 

21 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

against  slavery  not  a  Catholic  priest  nor  an 
Episcopal  clergyman  came  forward  as  a 
friend  of  the  oppressed,  with  one  possible 
exception.  They  were  engaged  in  the  time- 
honored  pastime  of  passing  by  on  the  other 
side. 

Pro-slavery  meetings  were  held  in  New 
York  and  other  cities  and  pro-slavery  riots 
broke  out  in  many  parts  of  the  North.  A 
great  meeting  was  held  at  Faneuil  Hall,  Bos- 
.  vton,  on  August  2ist,  1835,  to  protest  against 
-^Abolition.  The  principal  men  of  the  city  took 
part  and  the  mayor  was  in  the  chair.  One  of 
the  orators  turned  to  the  portrait  of  Wash 
ington  and  invoked  his  example  on  behalf  of 
the  slave-holders.  The  sum  of  three  thousand 
dollars  was  offered  in  the  South  for  the 
apprehension  of  Arthur  Tappan,  the  New 
York  philanthropist.  At  Concord  (auspicious 
name!)  Whittier  was  pelted  with  stones  and 
mud.  A  Harvard  professor  lost  his  chair  on  ac 
count  of  his  Abolition  sentiments,  and  leading 
Northern  publishers  took  pains  to  assure  the 
South  that  they  would  print  nothing  hostile 
^  to  slavery.  This  ignominious  subservience  to 
the  slave  power  seemed  to  be  almost  universal. 
Amid  such  opposition  and  although  "all 
pandemonium  was  let  loose,"  Garrison  became 
only  more  confident  and  determined.  Four 
men,  he  tells  us,  are  enough  to  revolutionize 
the  world.  Financial  difficulties  continually 

22 


The    Boston    Mob 

beset  his  path,  but  he  always  succeeded  in 
surmounting  them,  and  despite  many  a  gale, 
the  Liberator  was  able  to  proceed  on  its  way. 
But  the  most  conspicuous  pro-slavery  demon 
stration  was  in  the  event  directed  against 
Garrison  himself,  and  was  the  immediate 
result  of  the  antagonism  of  the  enemies  of 
Abolition  towards  George  Thompson,  a  dis 
tinguished  English  Abolitionist,  who  was 
lecturing  in  America,  and  whose  interference 
with  our  "domestic"  institutions  was  most 
offensive  to  them.  It  was  announced  that  he 
would  address  a  meeting  of  ladies  on  the 
afternoon  of  October  2ist,  1835,  at  a  hall 
adjoining  the  offices  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
Society  and  the  Liberator,  at  46  Washington 
street,  Boston.  Placards  were  posted  in  pub 
lic  places  urging  good  citizens  to  bring  the 
"infamous  foreign  scoundrel  to  the  tar-kettle 
before  dark."  In  response  to  this  several 
thousand  angry  men  gathered  in  the  street 
at  the  time  set  for  the  meeting,  but  Thomp 
son  had  been  wisely  kept  away.  The  women 
showed  the  greatest  coolness  and  courage  and 
went  quietly  on  with  their  proceedings, 
although  the  door  of  the  hall  and  the  stair 
ways  of  the  building  were  thronged  by  a 
threatening  and  unruly  mob.  The  mayor 
arrived  upon  the  scene  and  endeavored  to 
disperse  the  crowd  outside  by  announcing 
that  the  Englishman  was  not  in  the  city,  but 

23 


Garrison    the    Non-Resistant 

they  soon  showed  that  they  did  not  care  on 
whom  they  vented  their  wrath,  provided  only 
that  it  was  on  an  Abolitionist.  At  last  they 
broke  in  through  the  door  of  the  Anti-Slavery 
Society  office,  where  Garrison  was  calmly 
writing  a  letter.  Some  constables  succeeded, 
however,  in  getting  the  rioters  out  of  the 
house  before  further  violence  was  done,  and 
the  mayor,  going  to  the  meeting-room,  ordered 
the  ladies  to  leave  the  building,  as  he  would 
be  unable  to  protect  them  longer.  They 
adjourned  accordingly  to  the  house  of  one  of 
their  number,  marching  out  two  and  two, 
each  white  woman  taking  a  colored  one  with 
her.  "When  we  emerged  into  the  open  day 
light,"  says  one  of  the  number,  "there  went 
up  a  roar  of  rage  and  contempt.  They  slowly 
gave  way  as  we  came  out.  As  far  as  we 
could  look  either  way  the  crowd  extended — 
evidently  of  the  so-called  'wealthy  and 
respectable/  'the  moral  worth/  the  'influence 
and  standing/  " 

"Garrison!  Garrison!"  was  now  the  cry. 
"We  must  have  Garrison!  Out  with  him! 
Lynch  him !"  The  mob  demanded  that  the  anti- 
slavery  society  signboard  be  removed.  The 
mayor  at  once  ordered  it  to  be  taken  down, 
and  it  was  speedily  torn  to  pieces.  The  mayor 
now  besought  Garrison  to  escape  by  the  rear 
of  the  building,  and  the  latter,  preceded  by  a 
friend,  dropped  from  a  back  window  on  the 

24 


The   Boston   Mob 

roof  of  a  shed  and  sought  refuge  in  a  carpen 
ter  shop  on  the  street  behind ;  but  his  retreat 
was  already  cut  off.  The  workmen  in  the 
shop  did  what  they  could  for  him,  shutting 
the  front  door  and  keeping  the  crowd  back 
until  Garrison  could  hide  himself  upstairs, 
but  in  a  few  minutes  the  ruffians  broke  in 
and  had  no  difficulty  in  finding  his  place  of 
concealment.  They  seized  him  and  dragged 
him  to  the  window,  intending  to  throw  him 
out,  but  someone  below  in  the  street  shouted, 
"Don't  kill  him  outright,"  and,  changing 
their  minds,  they  tied  a  rope  round  him  and 
let  him  down  by  a  ladder.  Fortunately  he 
was  received  at  the  bottom  by  two  strong 
men  who  were  determined  that  the  fame  of 
Boston  should  not  be  stained  by  a  lynching. 
They  succeeded,  with  superhuman  efforts,  in 
guiding  him  through  the  crowd,  in  which  it 
was  evident  now  that  Garrison  had  some 
sympathizers,  to  the  door  of  the  neighboring 
city  hall,  over  the  very  ground  where  the 
first  martyrs  of  the  Revolution  were  slain  in 
the  Boston  massacre  of  1770,  and  where  their 
degenerate  descendants  were  now  taking  the 
part  of  the  oppressors.  The  mayor  had  already 
reached  the  building.  "On  my  way  from  the 
Liberator  office  to  the  city  hall,"  he  says, 
"several  people  said  to  me,  They  are  going 
to  hang  him!  For  God's  sake,  save  him!'" 
Garrison  was  conducted  with  much  difficulty 

25 


Garrison  the   Non-Resistant 

to  the  mayor's  office,  and  as  he  was  now  bare 
headed  and  half  naked,  the  friends  of  the 
mayor  were  obliged  to  lend  him  clothes  to 
cover  him.  They  decided  that  the  only  way 
to  save  him  was  to  commit  him  to  jail  as  a 
disturber  of  the  peace!  A  carriage  was  sent 
to  the  door  to  deceive  the  mob,  and  while 
they  waited,  another  carriage  bore  him  from 
a  door  in  the  rear  to  the  city  jail.  But  the 
people,  when  they  discovered  the  ruse,  rushed 
upon  the  vehicle  and  tried  to  drag  him  out. 
They  clung  to  the  wheels,  dashed  open  the 
doors,  seized  hold  of  the  horses  and  tried  to 
upset  the  carriage.  But  the  police  did  their 
best,  the  driver  plied  his  whip  on  the  horses 
and  on  the  rioters,  and  by  some  miracle  Gar 
rison  was  deposited  at  the  jail  in  safety  and 
locked  up  in  a  cell.  On  the  morrow  he  left 
Boston  and  did  not  return  until  the  fury  of 
the  storm  had  spent  itself,  but  even  then  he 
was  forced  to  change  his  residence,  as  his 
former  landlord  feared  that  his  house  might 
be  destroyed. 

The  biographers  of  Garrison  call  attention 
to  the  attitude  of  the  authorities  during  this 
episode.  "Law  officers  in  abundance  over 
looked  the  scene  of  the  mob;  the  legislators, 
in  special  session  at  the  state  house — John  G. 
Whittier  among  them — hastened  down  to 
become  spectators.  Law  was  everywhere,  but 
justice  was  fallen  in  the  streets 

26 


The   Boston   Mob 

Wendell  Phillips,  commencing  practice  in  his 
native  city,  and  not  versed,  perhaps,  in  the 
riot  statutes,  wondered  why  his  regiment  was 
not  called  out."  An  alderman,  when  ques 
tioned  while  the  riot  was  in  progress,  "inti 
mated  that,  though  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
mayor  to  put  down  the  riot,  the  city  govern 
ment  did  not  very  much  disapprove  of  the 
mob  to  put  down  such  agitators  as  Garrison 
and  those  like  him.'*  The  editor  of  the  New 
England  Galaxy  overheard  a  justice  of  the 
peace  remark:  "I  hope  they  will  catch  him 
(Garrison)  and  tar  and  feather  him;  and 
though  I  would  not  assist,  I  can  tell  them 
five  dollars  are  ready  for  the  man  that  will 
do  it." 

The  press,  secular  and  religious,  unani-f 
mously  showed  its  opposition  to  the  Aboli-/ 
tionists  in  this  matter.  The  Daily  Advertiser 
considered  "the  whole  transaction  as  the 
triumph  of  the  law  over  lawless  violence," 
and  the  Christian  Watchman  (save  the 
mark!),  a  Baptist  journal,  declared  that  the 
Abolitionists  were  as  culpable  as  the  mob. 

In  the  pages  of  the  Liberator  Garrison 
described  the  riot,  and  attacked  its  promoters 
and  sympathizers  with  his  customary  force 
and  ability.  During  the  danger  he  had  not 
for  a  moment  lost  his  composure,  as  all  who 
saw  him  bore  witness,  friend  and  foe  alike. 
"Throughout  the  whole  of  the  trying  scene," 

27 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

he  testifies  himself,  "I  felt  perfectly  calm- 
nay,  very  happy.  It  seemed  to  me  that  it 
was  indeed  a  blessed  privilege  thus  to  suffer 
in  the  cause  of  Christ.  Death  did  not  pre 
sent  one  repulsive  feature.  The  promises  of 
God  sustained  my  soul,  so  that  it  was  not 
only  divested  of  fear,  but  ready  to  sing  for 
joy."  This  same  courage  enabled  him  to 
stigmatize  the  outrage  in  his  paper  according 
to  its  deserts,  and  never  for  an  instant  did 
he  alter  his  tone  from  any  sense  of  fear. 
Harriet  Martineau,  who  was  visiting  America 
at  this  time,  gives  her  impressions  of  Garri 
son's  appearance  and  manner.  "It  was  a 
countenance  glowing  with  health,  and  wholly 
expressive  of  purity,  animation  and  gentle 
ness."  She  found  "sagacity  the  most  strik 
ing  attribute  of  his  conversation,"  which  was 
"of  the  most  practical  cast." 

The  year  1837  showed  a  marked  improve 
ment  in  New  England  sentiment.  While  it 
is  true  that  the  Congregational  Church  pro 
tested  against  the  discussion  of  "certain  top 
ics"  in  meeting-houses,  and  that  the  Massa 
chusetts  Anti-Slavery  Society  could  not  find 
a  suitable  hall  or  church  to  meet  in  at  Bos 
ton  and  was  obliged  to  organize  over  a  stable, 
still  the  legislature  went  so  far  as  to  permit 
it  to  make  use  of  the  state  house.  This  was 
a  strong  indication  that  the  Abolitionists  had 
become  a  power  to  reckon  with.  Twelve 

28 


The    Boston   Mob 

hundred  anti-slavery  societies  were  now  in 
operation,  and  the  foul  murder  of  the  Rev. 
E.  P.  Love  joy,  at  Alton,  Illinois,  by  a  mob 
which  thus  exhibited  its  disapproval  of  his 
anti-slavery  journal,  did  much  to  stir  up  Aboli 
tion  sentiment,  already  stimulated  by  many 
similar  outrages  in  the  South.  Lovejoy's 
assassination  brought  Wendell  Phillips  into 
the  ranks  of  the  Garrisonians,  and  he  declared 
himself  in  an  eloquent  speech  at  Faneuil  Hall 
at  a  meeting  called  to  express  the  indignation 
of  all  that  was  best  in  Boston.  But  still  the 
low  passions  of  the  friends  of  slavery  con 
tinued  to  show  themselves  at  the  North.  In 
1838,  during  a  convention  of  Abolitionists, 
Pennsylvania  Hall,  a  building  recently  erected 
in  Philadelphia  for  these  and  other  philan 
thropic  meetings,  was  burned  to  the  ground 
by  a  pro-slavery  mob;  and  it  was  only  by 
calling  out  the  militia  that  a  similar  crime 
was  prevented  in  Boston,  where  another  hall 
had  been  built  for  the  same  purposes. 


CHAPTER  III 
NON-RESISTANCE,  DISSENSIONS 

Integer  vitae  scelerisquc  purus 
Non  eget  Mauris  jaculis  neque  arcu 
Nee  venenatis  gravida  sagittis, 
Fusee,  pharetra. 

—HORACE,  Odes,  1:22. 

Any  account  of  Garrison  which  failed  to 
give  due  emphasis  to  his  belief  in  "non-re 
sistance"  would  be  most  imperfect,  for  he 

t  regarded  this  principle  as  the  very  root  of  all 
his  convictions.  He  seems  very  early  to  have 
had  an  instinctive  repugnance  to  the  use  of 
physical  force.  In  the  declaration  of  senti 
ment  which  he  drew  for  the  American  Anti- 
Slavery  Society  in  1833,  and  which  was 

\  adopted,  he  says :  \  "Our  principles  forbid  the 
N.  doing  of  evil  that  good  may  come,  and  lead 

^^us  to  reject,  and  to  entreat  the  oppressed  to 
reject,  the  use  of  all  carnal  weapons  for 
deliverance  from  bondage.  .  .  .  Our 
measures  shall  be  such  only  as  the  opposition 
of  moral  purity  to  moral  corruption — the 
destruction  of  error  by  the  potency  of  the 
truth — the  overthrow  of  prejudice  by  the 

30 


Non-Resistance,    Dissensions 

power  of  love — and  the  abolition  of  slavery 
by  the  spirit  of  repentance."     In  the  midst 
of  the  Boston  mob  he  exhorted  his  friends 
not  to  resort  to  violence,  and  he  expressed 
his   regret   that   Love  joy  fell   fighting.     TEe" — 
question  of  the  moral  character  of  war  was         > 
much  agitated  about  this  time,  and  Garrison    / 
contended  that  if  peace  was  invariably  incum^. 
bent  on  nations,  it  must  be  no  less  so  between 
individuals.  ^ 

As  was  the  custom  of  the  day,  a  conven 
tion  was  called  to  consider  non-resistance  as 
the  true  basis  of  peace.  Some  hundred  and 
fifty  delegates  met  in  September,  1838,  at 
Boston,  and  Garrison  as  usual  dominated  the 
deliberations,  and  drew  up  a  declaration 
which  was  carried  and  afterwards  signed  by 
a  large  majority,  and  which  he  fondly  hoped 
would  "make  a  tremendous  stir,  not  only  in 
this  country,  but  in  time  throughout  the 
world."  "Mankind  shall  hail  the  2oth  of 
September  with  more  exultation  and  grati 
tude  than  Americans  now  do  the  4th  of  July." 
The  document  is  a  long  one,  but  the  salient 
paragraphs  are  as  follows : 

We  cannot  acknowledge  allegiance  to  any*-'' 
human  government;  neither  can  we  oppose 
any  such  government  by  a  resort  to  phy 
sical  force.  We  recognize  but  one  King 
and  Lawgiver,  one  Judge  and  Ruler  of 
mankind.  We  are  bound  by  the  laws  of  a 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

Kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world,  the 
subjects  of  which  are  forbidden  to  fight. 

As  every  human  government  is  upheld  by 
physical  strength  and  its  laws  are  enforced 
virtually  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  we 
cannot  hold  any  office  which  imposes  upon 
its  incumbent  the  obligation  to  compel  men 
to  do  right  on  pain  of  imprisonment  or 
death.  We  therefore  voluntarily  exclude 
ourselves  from  every  legislative  and  judicial 
body,  and  repudiate  all  human  politics, 
worldly  honors  and  stations  of  authority. 
If  we  cannot  occupy  a  seat  in  the  legisla 
ture  or  on  the  bench,  neither  can  we  elect 
others  to  act  as  our  substitutes  in  any  such 
capacity. 

It  follows  that  we  cannot  sue  any  man  at 
law  to  compel  him  by  force  to  restore  any 
thing  which  he  may  have  wrongfully  taken 
from  us  or  others ;  but  if  he  has  seized  our 
coat,  we  shall  surrender  up  our  cloak  rather 
than  to  subject  him  to  punishment. 

We  believe  that  the  penal  code  of  the  old 
covenant,  "An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth 
for  a  tooth,"  has  been  abrogated  by  Jesus 
Christ,  and  that  under  the  new  covenant, 
the  forgiveness  instead  of  the  punishment 
of  enemies  has  been  enjoined  upon  all  his 
disciples  in  all  cases  whatsoever. 

The  history  of  mankind  is  crowded  with 
evidences  proving  that  physical  coercion  is 
not  adapted  to  moral  regeneration ;  that  the 
sinful  disposition  of  men  can  be  subdued 
only  by  love ;  that  evil  can  be  exterminated 
from  the  earth  only  by  goodness. 

But  while  we  shall  adhere  to  the  doctrine 

32 


Non-Resistance,    Dissensions 

of  non-resistance  and  passive  submission  to 
enemies,  we  purpose,  in  a  moral  and  spirit 
ual  sense,  to  speak  and  act  boldly  in  the 
cause  of  God;  to  assail  iniquity  in  high 
places;  to  apply  our  principles  to  all  ex 
isting  civil,  political,  legal  and  ecclesiastical 
institutions. 

The  triumphant  progress  of  the  cause  of 

\  temperance  and  abolition  in  our  land   .  .    . 

-encourages  us   to  combine  our   means   and 

efforts  for  the  promotion  of  a  still  greater 

cause. 

This  "greater  cause"  (an  admission  indeed 
for  Garrison)  held  its  own  for  some  years. 
The  convention  founded  a  Non-resistance 
Society,  and  published  a  semi-monthly  paper, 
with  Edmund  Quincy  as  editor,  who  showed 
his  sincerity  by  returning  to  the  governor 
his  commission  of  justice  of  the  peace.  His 
journal  was  issued  for  several  years  and  paid 
expenses.  But  the  demands  of  Abolition  and 
non-resistance  upon  the  same  individuals 
proved  too  great,  and  gradually  and  imper 
ceptibly  the  movement  subsided,  destined 
doubtless  at  some  future  day  to  reassert  its 
claim  upon  the  conscience  of  mankind,  al 
though  it  may  present  itself  in  a  different 
and  more  philosophical  form. 

During  these  years  signs  of  disaffection 
began  to  show  themselves  in  the  Abolitionist 
ranks.  The  scandalous  inhumanity  and 
cowardice  of  the  churches  had  kindled  against 

33 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

them  the  just  indignation  of  Garrison  and 
many  of  his  followers.  They  retorted  that  he 
was  an  "infidel"  and  that  his  harsh  language 
was  unchristian.  Five  Abolitionist  clergy 
men  led  a  revolt  against  him  and  insisted 
upon  the  formation  of  a  new  organization 
with  a  new  journal  of  its  own.  It  would  be 
tedious  to  trace  the  history  of  these  dissen 
sions.  They  continued  for  many  years,  but 
Garrison  stood  to  his  guns  without  flinching, 
and  in  the  end  his  course  was  fully  justified. 
He  also  aroused  opposition  by  refusing  to 
countenance  political  action  and  by  preach 
ing  non-resistance  in  the  Liberator.  His 
opponents  urged  that  any  Abolitionist  who 
failed  to  vote  was  a  traitor  to  the  cause. 
Garrison,  however,  had  conscientious  scruples 
against  voting,  and  in  the  whole  course  of 
his  life  only  voted  once  for  a  political  officer, 
and  that  was  when  he  was  a  very  young  man. 
The  seceders  nominated  candidates  for  presi 
dent  and  vice-president  in  the  national  elec 
tion  of  1840,  a  course  which  only  revealed 
their  weakness,  as  party  spirit  ran  so  high 
that  most  of  the  anti-slavery  voters  followed 
their  old  party  leaders  to  the  polls.  The 
"third  party"  Abolitionists,  who  supported 
their  own  candidates  in  1840,  eventually 
drifted  into  the  Free  Soil  Party,  and  in  1852 
were  contented  with  a  declaration  against 
the  extension  of  slavery  and  the  enforcement 

34 


Non-Resistance,    Dissensions 

of  the  fugitive  slave  law — so  far  had  political 
compromise  allured  them  from  the  principle 
of  immediate  emancipation.  It  was  fortunate 
that  they  never  got  the  upper  hand  in  the 
American  Anti-Slavery  Society.  The  ques 
tion  of  woman's  rights  was  also  a  burning 
one  among  the  Abolitionists,  and  the  cause 
of  divisions.  Should  they  or  should  they  not 
take  an  equal  part  with  men  in  conventions 
and  committee  work?  Garrison  stoutly  up 
held  their  right  on  all  occasions;  and  when 
at  the  world's  anti-slavery  convention  in 
London  in  1840  they  were  excluded  from  the 
floor,  he  declined  to  present  his  credentials 
as  a  delegate  and  took  his  seat  among  the 
spectators  in  the  gallery. 

Garrison's  policy  against  slavery  was 
chiefly  directed  toward  the  creation  of  senti 
ment,  but  he  had  several  minor  measures  at 
heart  which  he  strove  to  forward  with  his 
customary  persistence.  He  was  active  in 
petitioning  Congress  to  abolish  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  For  years,  as  is 
well  known,  the  Southern  members  tried  to 
deny  the  right  of  petition  in  this  regard,  and 
John  Quincy  Adams  bravely  withstood  them. 
The  course  of  the  South  in  opposing  this 
clear  Constitutional  right  disgusted  all  fair- 
minded  people  in  the  North  and  helped  to 
spread  and  consolidate  anti-slavery  opinion. 
Another  aim  of  Garrison's  was  to  persuade 

35 


Garrison    the    Non-Resistant 

England  to  buy  her  cotton  from  the  free 
labor  of  India  and  thus  strike  a  blow  at  the 
pockets  of  the  slave-holders.  Commercial 
reasons  had  much  to  do  with  Northern  pro- 
slavery  feeling,  for  the  merchants  of  the  free 
States  did  not  wish  to  have  their  markets 
disturbed.  General  Dix,  afterwards  governor 
of  New  York,  records  that  in  1850  he  found 
merchants  of  high  standing  in  the  metropolis 
who  declared  their  readiness  to  advocate  the 
re-establishment  of  the  foreign  slave  trade 
and  the  reintroduction  of  slavery  at  the 
North. 


CHAPTER  IV 
CONSTITUTION      AND      CONSCIENCE 

Were  you  looking  to  be  held  together  by  lawyers? 
Or  by  an  agreement  on  a  paper?  Or  by  arms? 
Nay,  nor  the  world  nor  any  living  thing  will  so  cohere. 
—WALT  WHITMAN,  "Drum-Taps." 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  rec 
ognized  the  legality  of  slavery,  and  an  idola 
trous  regard  for  that  document  and  for  the 
Union  maintained  by  it  between  the  States 
closed  the  eyes  of  many  Americans  to  the 
iniquity  of  the  institution.  Webster  was  the 
high  priest  of  this  fetish-worship,  and  his  mis 
erable  capitulation  to  the  slave  power  was  in 
part  due  to  this  false  patriotism,  and  in  part 
to  his  presidential  aspirations.  But  he  hu 
miliated  himself  in  vain.  Even  Lincoln,  who 
knew  that  "  if  slavery  is  not  wrong,  nothing 
is  wrong,"  felt  justified  as  late  as  August, 
1862,  in  saying,  "If  I  could  save  the  Union 
without  freeing  any  slaves  I  would  do  it;  if 
I  could  save  it  by  freeing  all  the  slaves,  I 
would  do  it;  and  if  I  could  do  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I  would  also 
do  that."  Garrison  never  allowed  the  Con- 

37 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

stitutional  argument  to  obscure  the  moral  ob 
ligation.  He  frankly  acknowledged  that  he 
preferred  the  dissolution  of  the  Union  to  the 
recognition,  express  or  implied,  of  slavery  in 
any  form.  It  is  rather  difficult  to  understand 
at  this  distant  day  why  the  people  of  the 
North  were  so  anxious  for  union  with  States 
whose  inhabitants  visited  upon  them  indis 
criminately  the  most  opprobrious  epithets, 
and  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  South 
erners  must  have  had  more  respect  for  the 
outspoken  anathemas  of  Garrison  than  for 
the  truckling  subserviency  of  time-serving 
politicians  and  tradesmen.  The  non-resist 
ant  was  more  of  a  man  than  his  fellow  citi 
zens  who  saw  nothing  wrong  in  war.  "No 
Union  with  Slave-Holders"  became  his 
motto,  and  in  1844  ne  began  to  print  it  weekly 
at  the  head  of  the  columns  of  the  Liberator. 
The  Constitution  was  now  for  him  a  "cove- 

,     <£to  £A{et>rn*v4  •M''»\. 

nant  with  death  and,,  hell.  The  annexation 
of  Texas  in  the  teeth  of  the  most  solemn  ob 
ligations,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  extending 
slavery  over  a  territory  in  which  it  had  been 
abolished,  strengthened  the  feeling  of  hos 
tility  to  the  government  among  the  Aboli 
tionists,  and  the  passage  of  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law  was  almost  more  than  they  could 
bear.  The  South  was  steadily  pursuing  a 
policy  which  was  bound  to  swell  the  Aboli 
tion  ranks  and  to  rouse  the  enmity  of  many 

38 


Constitution   and    Conscience 

who  had  hitherto  been  friendly  to  them.  In 
the  light  of  history  nothing  could  have  been 
more  futile  than  the  course  of  their  boasted 
statesmen.  Even  Boston  could  hardly  stand 
the  sight  of  a  fugitive  slave  marching  down 
to  the  wharf  between  files  of  soldiers  to  be 
returned  to  the  questionable  mercies  of  his 
master.  Webster  besought  his  State  to 
"conquer  her  own  prejudices,"  and  declared 
that  "anyone  can  perform  an  agreeable  duty; 
it  is  not  every  man  who  can  perform  a  disa 
greeable  duty,"  a  remark  which  measures  the 
depth  of  Northern  hypocrisy,  and  shows  that 
on  the  whole  the  North  was  more  contemp 
tible,  if  not  more  wicked,  than  the  South 
throughout  these  wretched  years.  President 
Fillmore  disgraced  his  State,  New  York,  by 
signing  the  Fugitive  Slave  Bill  in  1850,  al 
though,  if  he  had  vetoed  it,  there  was  a 
chance  of  defeating  it  on  its  second  passage. 
Six  thousand  Negroes  at  once  fled  from  the 
miscalled  free  States  across  the  border  into 
Canada  and  found  freedom  on  British  soil. 
When  Wendell  Phillips  and  Theodore  Parker 
addressed  a  mass-meeting  at  Faneuil  Hall 
to  protest  against  the  return  of  a  captured 
slave,  Judge  B.  R.  Curtis,  who  hoped  to  ob 
tain  the  post  of  chief  justice  from  the  slave 
power,  and  was  in  fact  one  of  the  greatest 
of  living  jurists,  urged  the  grand  jury  to  in 
dict  them  as  "obstructing  the  process  of  the 

39 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

United  States;"  and  that  honorable  body 
complied  with  his  request.  President  Pierce, 
a  New  Hampshire  man,  ordered  out  the 
troops  to  make  sure  the  delivery  of  the  un 
fortunate  captive.  Congress,  bent  upon  prov 
ing  that  it  was  as  much  enslaved  to  the 
slave-holders  as  the  Negroes  themselves,  in 
obedience  to  its  task-masters,  swept  aside  the 
Missouri  Compromise,  and  passed  the 
Nebraska  Bill,  which  opened  to  slavery  a 
vast  region  which  had  been  solemnly  dedi 
cated  by  the  same  body  to  freedom.  True  in 
deed  were  Whittier's  lines: 

And  Law,  an  unloosed  maniac,  strong, 
Blood-drunken,  through  the  blackness  trod, 
Hoarse-shouting  in  the  ear  of  God 
The  blasphemy  of  wrong. 

We  may  readily  imagine  the  frame  of 
mind  in  which  these  events  left  Garrison. 
At  the  4th  of  July  celebration  of  the  Aboli 
tionists  at  Framingham,  Massachusetts,  in 
1854,  he  made  an  address  in  the  open  air, 
in  the  course  of  which  he  produced  a  copy 
of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law,  and  setting  fire 
to  it,  burned  it  to  ashes.  "And  let  all  people 
say,  Amen,"  he  cried ;  and  a  shout  of  "Amen" 
went  up  from  the  vast  crowd.  Then  he 
burned  the  decision  of  the  commissioner 
ordering  the  surrender  of  a  slave,  and  also 
the  charge  of  Judge  Curtis  to  the  grand  jury. 
"And  let  all  the  people  say,  Amen."  Then 

40 


Constitution   and   Conscience 

he  held  up  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  declaring  it  to  be  the  source 
and  parent  of  the  other  atrocities,  he  com 
mitted  it  too  to  the  flames.  "So  perish  all 
compromises  with  tyranny,  and  let  all  the 
people  say,  Amen."  And  the  audience  again 
responded  from  their  hearts,  "Amen!"  In 
1857  ne  went  so  far  as  to  take  part  in  a  State 
convention,  called  to  urge  the  separation  of 
the  free  from  the  slave  States. 

It  must  not  be  supposed  that  throughout 
these  years  the  Abolitionists  were  less  per 
secuted  than  formerly  by  their  enemies.  If 
public  sentiment  in  some  quarters  was 
becoming  more  favorable  to  them,  that  very 
fact  aroused  the  base  passions  of  their  oppo 
nents.  In  1850  James  Gordon  Bennett,  in  the 
Herald,  deliberately  stirred  up  a  mob  to  put 
down  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the  Ameri 
can  Anti-Slavery  Society  at  New  York.  He 
described  the  speakers  as  "William  H.  Fur- 
ness,  of  Philadelphia,  white-man,  from 
Anglo-Saxon  blood;  Frederick  Douglass,  of 
Rochester,  black-man,  from  African  blood; 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  of  Boston,  mulatto- 
man,  mixed  race;  Wendell  Phillips,  of  Bos 
ton,  white-man,  merely  from  blood."  He 
added  that  "Garrison  surpasses  Robespierre 
and  his  associates,"  and  borrowing  his  lan 
guage  apparently  from  a  future  generation, 
calls  the  members  of  the  society  "Abolition- 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

ists,  socialists,  Sabbath-breakers  and  anar 
chists."  The  Globe  quite  distinctly  advised 
the  murder  of  Douglass.  The  mob  assem 
bled  promptly,  and  although  on  the  first  day 
the  firm  dignity  of  the  speakers  held  them 
at  bay,  the  further  continuance  of  the  con 
vention  was  rendered  impossible.  "Thus 
closed  anti-slavery  free  discussion  in  New 
York  for  1850,"  said  the  Tribune.  Similar 
events  occurred  in  Boston,  and  the  crowd 
silenced  Phillips  himself  in  Faneuil  Hall. 
Even  after  Lincoln's  election,  anti-slavery 
meetings  were  broken  up  by  rioters  in  Bos 
ton,  and  on  one  occasion  Phillips'  life  was 
for  a  time  in  danger.  In  Brooklyn  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  had  to  be  guarded  by  the 
police  in  Plymouth  Church. 


42 


CHAPTER  V 
THE  CIVIL  WAR 

War  is  a  condition  of  hate  subsisting  between  persons,  and 
peace  is  a  condition  of  good-will  subsisting  between  persons. 

—ERASMUS. 

Garrison's  doctrine  of  non-resistance  was 
put  to  the  test  throughout  this  period  and  to 
the  end  of  the  Civil  War  itself,  but  he  never 
wavered.  In  1856,  during  the  early  struggle 
for  freedom  in  Kansas,  Theodore  Parker  and 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  had  not  hesitated  to 
hold  meetings  in  their  churches  with  the 
object  of  raising  money  to  buy  rifles  for  the 
anti-slavery  volunteers.  Mr.  Beecher  said: 
"You  might  just  as  well  read  the  Bible  to 
buffaloes  as  to  those  fellows  who  follow 
Atchison  and  Stringfellow."  Garrison  ex 
pressed  his  emphatic  dissent  from  this  asser 
tion.  To  class  human  beings  as  wild  beasts 
was,  he  said,  merely  to  adopt  the  theory 
which  the  slaveholders  applied  to  their 
slaves.  The  "border  ruffians"  of  Kansas  were 
less  blameworthy  than  their  respectable 
backers.  "Convince  us  that  it  is  right  to 
shoot  anybody,  and  our  perplexity  would  be 

43 


Garrison    the    Non-Resistant 

to  know  where  to  begin — whom  first  to  des 
patch  as  opportunity  might  offer.  We  should 
have  to  make  clean  work  of  the  president 
and  his  cabinet" — and  he  goes  on  to  enu 
merate  various  distinguished  men  who  must 
be  considered  as  accomplices. 

We  know  not  where  to  look  for  Chris 
tianity  if  not  to  its  Founder,  and  taking  the 
record  of  his  life  and  death,  of  his  teaching 
and  example,  we  can  discover  nothing 
which  even  remotely,  under  any  conceiv 
able  circumstances,  justifies  the  use  of  the 
sword  or  rifle  on  the  part  of  his  followers; 
on  the  contrary,  we  find  nothing  but  self- 
sacrifice,  willing  martyrdom  (if  need  be), 
peace  and  good-will,  and  the  prohibition  of 
all  retaliatory  feelings  enjoined  upon  all 
those  who  would  be  his  disciples.  When  he 
said,  "Fear  not  those  who  kill  the  body," 
he  broke  every  deadly  weapon.  When  he 
said,  "My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world, 
else  would  my  servants  fight  that  I  should 
not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews,"  he  plainly 
prohibited  war  in  self-defense  and  substi 
tuted  martyrdom  therefor.  When  he  said, 
"Love  your  enemies,"  he  did  not  mean 
"kill  them  when  they  go  too  far."  When 
he  said,  while  expiring  on  the  cross,  "Father, 
forgive  them,  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do,"  he  did  not  treat  them  as  a  "herd  of 
buffaloes,"  but  as  poor,  misguided  and  lost 
men.  We  believe  in  his  philosophy;  we 
accept  his  instruction;  we  are  thrilled 
by  his  example ;  we  rejoice  in  his  fidelity. 

44 


The   Civil   War 

Such  was  the  argument  of  the  man  whom 
the  churches,  crying  "Lord!  Lord!"  de 
nounced  as  an  infidel.  It  was  in  this  very 
year  that  the  Independent,  one  of  the  best 
known  religious  papers  of  the  country,  and 
on  whose  editorial  board  were  such  dis 
tinguished  clergymen  as  Dr.  Leonard  Bacon 
and  Dr.  Storrs,  called  Garrison  an  infidel  "of 
the  most  degraded  class!" 

When  at  last  war  became  inevitable,  Gar 
rison  deplored  the  martial  spirit  of  many  of 
the  Abolitionists.  "When  the  anti-slavery 
cause  was  launched,"  he  said,  "it  was  bap 
tized  in  the  spirit  of  peace." 

We  proclaimed  to  the  country  and  the 
world  that  the  weapons  of  our  warfare 
were  not  carnal,  but  spiritual,  and  we  be 
lieved  them  to  be  mighty  through  God  to 
the  pulling  down  even  of  the  stronghold  of 
slavery,  and  for  several  years  great  moral 
power  accompanied  our  cause  wherever 
presented.  Alas!  .  .  .  We  are  growing 
more  and  more  warlike,  more  and  more 
disposed  to  repudiate  the  principles  of  peace. 
.  .  .  Just  in  proportion  as  this  spirit  pre 
vails,  I  feel  that  our  moral  power  is 
departing  and  will  depart.  ...  I  be 
lieve  in  the  spirit  of  peace  and  in  sole  and 
absolute  reliance  on  truth  and  the  applica 
tion  of  it  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of 
the  people.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  wea 
pons  of  liberty  ever  have  been,  or  ever  can 
be,  the  weapons  of  despotism.  I  know  that 

45 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

those  of  despotism  are  the  sword,  the  re 
volver,  the  cannon,  the  bombshell,  and 
therefore  the  weapons  to  which  tyrants 
cling  and  upon  which  they  depend  are  not 
the  weapons  for  me,  as  a  friend  of  liberty. 
.  .  .  Much  as  I  detest  the  oppression 
exercised  by  the  Southern  slaveholder,  he  is 
a  man,  sacred  before  me.  He  is  a  man,  not 
to  be  harmed  by  my  hand  nor  with  my  con 
sent.  He  is  a  man  who  is  grievously  and 
wickedly  trampling  upon  the  rights  of  his 
fellow-man;  but  all  I  have  to  do  with  him 
is  to  rebuke  his  sin,  to  call  him  to  repent 
ance,  to  leave  him  without  excuse  for  his 
tyranny.  He  is  a  sinner  before  God — a 
great  sinner;  yet,  while  I  will  not  cease 
reprobating  his  horrible  injustice,  I  will  let 
him.  see  that  in  my  heart  there  is  no  desire 
to  do  him  harm, — that  I  wish  to  bless  him 
here,  and  bless  him  everlastingly, — and 
that  I  have  no  other  weapon  to  wield 
against  him  but  the  simple  truth  of  God, 
which  is  the  great  instrument  for  the  over 
throw  of  all  iniquity  and  the  salvation  of 
the  world. 

In  speaking  of  John  Brown  after  his  raid 
at  Harper's  Ferry,  he  says: 

Judging  him  by  the  code  of  Bunker  Hill, 
we  think  he  is  as  deserving  of  high-wrought 
eulogy  as  any  who  ever  wielded  sword  or 
battle-axe  in  the  cause  of  liberty ;  but  we  do 
not  and  we  cannot  approve  any  indulgence 
of  the  war  spirit.  John  Brown  has  perhaps 
a  right  to  a  place  by  the  side  of  Moses, 

46 


The   Civil    War 

Joshua,  Gideon  and  David,  but  he  is  not 
on  the  same  plane  with  Jesus,  Paul,  Peter 
and  John. 

But  these  principles  of  Garrison  did  not 
prevent  him,  whenever  war  was  actually 
raging,  from  wishing  success  to  those  who 
fought  on  the  side  of  liberty. 

As  an  ultra-peace  man,  I  am  prepared  to 
say:  Success  to  every  slave  insurrection  in 
the  South  and  in  every  slave  country. 

I  thank  God  when  men  who  believe  in 
the  right  and  duty  of  wielding  carnal  wea 
pons  are  so  far  advanced  that  they  will  take 
those  weapons  out  of  the  scale  of  despotism 
and  throw  them  into  the  scale  of  freedom. 
It  is  an  indication  of  progress  and  a  positive 
moral  growth;  it  is  one  way  to  get  up  to 
the  sublime  platform  of  non-resistance ;  and 
it  is  God's  method  of  dealing  retribution 
upon  the  head  of  the  tyrant.  Rather  than 
see  men  wearing  their  chains  in  a  cowardly 
and  servile  spirit,  I  would,  as  an  advocate 
of  peace,  much  rather  see  them  breaking 
the  head  of  the  tyrant  with  their  chains. 
Give  me,  as  a  non-resistant,  Bunker  Hill 
and  Lexington  and  Concord,  rather  than 
the  cowardice  and  servility  of  a  Southern 
slave  plantation. 

Garrison  applied  these  rules  to  the  Civil 
War,  and  gave  his  entire  sympathy  to  the 
cause  of  the  North,  while  disapproving  alto 
gether  of  the  resort  to  arms.  Although  for  some 
time  after  the  election  and  inauguration  of 

47 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

Lincoln  the  Abolitionists  had  reason  to  doubt 
his  intentions  with  reference  to  slavery,  and 
especially  after  he  had  summarily  revoked  the 
orders  of  General  Fremont  and  General  Hun 
ter  liberating  the  slaves  in  their  respective 
military  districts,  still  Garrison  saw  deeper 
than  most  of  his  fellow  reformers,  and  almost 
from  the  first  gave  him  his  support.  Lin 
coln's  oath  of  office,  indeed,  obliged  him  to 
accept  the  Constitution,  and  to  that  extent 
he  was  not  a  free  man  or  a  free  moral  agent. 
Occupying  this  false  position,  he  felt  bound 
in  his  inaugural  address  indirectly  to  stigma 
tize  John  Brown's  undertaking  as  the  "great 
est  of  crimes."  He  also  insisted,  in  the  same 
address,  upon  the  rendition  of  fugitive  slaves, 
and  appealed  to  the  oaths  of  members  of 
Congress  to  sustain  this  obligation.  Could 
any  more  striking  example  of  the  baneful 
effect  of  oaths  be  given  than  these  passages 
which  his  oath  extorted  from  the  future 
Emancipator?  He  rose  to  a  higher  sense  of 
his  duties  later  when  he  told  Congress  in 
1864  that  "If  the  people  should  by  whatever 
mode  or  means  make  it  an  executive  duty 
to  re-enslave  such  persons,  another,  not  I, 
must  be  their  instrument  to  enforce  it."  Res 
ignation  of  office  is  surely  the  only  course 
for  an  official  who  finds  himself  called  upon 
to  do  something  which  offends  his  conscience. 
Garrison  earnestly  urged  the  renomination 

48 


The   Civil   War 

of  Lincoln  against  the  bitter  opposition  of 
Wendell  Phillips,  who  always  strangely  mis 
understood  the  President. 

Now  at  last  the  virtues  of  the  Abolitionists 
began  to  be  generally  recognized.  In  1864 
George  Thompson,  who  nearly  thirty  years 
before  had  barely  escaped  violence  from  pro- 
slavery  mobs,  returned  to  America.  He  was 
given  a  public  reception  in  Boston,  with 
Governor  Andrews  in  the  chair,  and  at  Wash 
ington  a  short  time  afterwards,  he  was  invi 
ted  by  the  House  of  Representatives  to 
deliver  a  lecture  in  their  hall.  Garrison,  too, 
was  treated  with  great  respect  when  he  visi 
ted  the  national  capital,  and  in  the  last  month 
of  the  war,  at  the  invitation  of  Secretary 
Stanton,  he  was  present  at  the  raising  of  the 
flag  on  Fort  Sumter  on  the  fourth  anniver 
sary  of  its  capture.  Dr.  Cuyler,  of  Brooklyn, 
records  that  while  he  was  standing  with 
Garrison  in  the  streets  of  Charleston,  a  band 
passed  them  playing  "John  Brown's  Body." 
"Only  listen  to  that  in  Charleston  streets!" 
exclaimed  Garrison,  and  they  both  broke 
into  tears.  The  Negroes  received  him  in  a 
large  church  building,  several  thousand  of 
them  being  crowded  into  it.  One  of  them 
addressed  him  in  an  eloquent  oration  on 
behalf  of  his  race  and  two  little  slave  girls 
presented  him  with  flowers.  This  occurred 
on  the  very  morrow  of  Lincoln's  death,  the 

49 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

news  of  which  had  not  yet  arrived.  One  of 
the  party  present  at  Fort  Sumter  and  Charles 
ton  has  informed  the  present  writer  that  it 
was  most  impressive  to  see  the  reverence 
with  which  the  Negroes  looked  at  Garrison, 
many  of  them  touching  his  coat  as  if  they 
expected  virtue  to  come  out  of  it. 

When  the  adoption  of  the  thirteenth  amend 
ment  to  the  Constitution,  declaring  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery,  was  assured,  Garrison  made 
up  his  mind  to  bring  the  Liberator  to  a  close 
and  to  retire  from  the  various  anti-slavery 
societies.  Their  work  was  indeed  ended,  the 
mass  of  the  population  had  caught  up  to 
them,  and  it  was  absurd  now  to  pretend  to 
any  exclusive  virtue.  Many  of  the  Aboli 
tionists  were  incensed  at  his  course,  and 
insisted  on  keeping  up  the  skeleton  of  their 
organization  for  several  years;  but  the  life 
had  left  them,  and  their  total  lack  of  influence 
proved  how  wise  Garrison's  action  had  been. 
He  set  up  the  last  paragraph  of  his  paper 
himself  in  December,  1865,  and  republished 
in  the  last  issue  the  prophetic  salutatory  of 
thirty  years  before.  Not  one  penny  of  gain 
had  he  to  show  for  this  lifetime  of  service. 


CHAPTER    VI 
THE   LABOR   QUESTION 

God  speed  the  hour,  the  glorious  hour, 

When  none  on  earth 
Shall  exercise  a  lordly  power 
Nor  in  a  tyrant's  presence  cower. 
But  all  to  Manhood's  stature  tower 
By  equal  birth! 

-WILLIAM  LLOYD  GARRISON, 

"The  Triumph  of  Freedom." 

Garrison  lived  for  thirteen  years  after  the 
close  of  the  war,  and  he  continued  to  take 
an  active  interest  in  the  freedmen,  in  woman's 
rights,  in  temperance,  free  trade  and  other 
reforms.  He  protested  against  the  exclusion 
of  the  Chinese  from  America,  believing  that 
the  yellow  man  is  a  brother  as  well  as  the 
black.  "No  suitable  occasion  for  bearing 
peace  and  non-resistance  testimonials  was 
neglected"  by  him,  as  his  biographers  tell 
us.  He  opposed  the  introduction  of  military 
drill  into  the  public  schools,  and  his  conver 
sation  so  impressed  a  young  Japanese  student 
who  was  preparing  himself  in  America  for 
the  army  of  his  country  that  on  his  return 
home  he  refused  to  serve  for  conscience* 
sake,  and  was  duly  cast  into  prison. 

It    is    not    without    regret    that  we    must 


Garrison  the  Non-Resistant 

record  Garrison's  insensibility  to  the  claims 
of  the  working  classes  outside  the  ranks  of 
the  slaves.  Their  condition  was  placed  be 
fore  him  by  a  correspondent  in  1875,  but  it 
did  not  appeal  to  him.  He  seemed  to  think 
that  the  ballot  (which,  by  the  way,  he  con 
sidered  it  wrong  to  make  use  of)  was  an 
all-sufficient  remedy  for  their  ills,  and  that 
the  laboring  man  held  his  fate  in  his  own 
hands.  "You  express  the  conviction,"  he 
adds,  "that  the  present  relation  of  capital  to 
labor  is  'hastening  the  nation  to  its  ruin,' 
and  that  if  some  remedy  is  not  applied  it  is 
difficult  to  see  'how  a  bloody  struggle  is  to 
be  prevented!'  I  entertain  no  such  fears. 
Our  danger  lies  in  sensual  indulgence,  in  a 
licentious  perversion  of  liberty,  in  the  preva 
lence  of  intemperance,  and  in  whatever  tends 
to  the  demoralization  of  the  people."  In  the 
same  strain  might  a  Southern  planter  have 
answered  Lundy  in  the  twenties!  Garrison 
was  only  a  fallible  mortal  after  all,  but  surely 
he  had  already  deserved  well  enough  of  his 
kind  for  us  to  overlook  the  natural  conserva 
tism  of  his  old  age.  It  is  not  everyone  that 
can  preserve  to  the  end  the  freshness  and 
alertness  of  vision  of  his  youth,  a  quality 
which  distinguished  Wendell  Phillips  from 
his  colleagues  and  outweighed  the  trivial 
defects  of  his  character. 

The  workingman,  it  should  be  said  in  this 

52 


The   Labor   Question 

connection,  at  one  time  at  least  had  shown 
his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  slave,  and 
placed  all  Abolitionists  under  lasting  obliga 
tions.  In  1863  a  friend  writing  to  Garrison 
from  England  says: 

The  working  classes  also  have  proved  to 
be  sound  to  the  core,  wherever  their  opinion 
has  been  tested.  Witness  the  noble  demon 
stration  of  Manchester  operatives  the  other 
day,  when  three  thousand  of  these  noble 
sons  of  labor  (many  of  whom  were  actual 
sufferers  from  the  cotton  famine)  adopted 
by  acclamation  an  address  to  President 
Lincoln  sympathizing  with  his  proclama 
tion.  A  friend  of  mine  who  was  present  on 
the  occasion  tells  me  that  the  heartiness 
and  enthusiasm  of  the  workingmen  was 
something  glorious ;  that  he  heard  them  say 
to  one  another  that  they  would  rather  re 
main  unemployed  for  twenty  years  than 
get  cotton  from  the  South  at  the  expense 
of  the  slave.  Mr.  Thompson  has  been  in 
other  parts  of  Lancashire,  and  the  meetings 
he  has  addressed  have  been  attended  with 
the  same  results.  Our  experience  in  Lon 
don  has  been  equally  satisfactory.  It  would 
have  done  you  good  if  you  had  ...  at 
tended  the  great  meeting  of  the  working 
classes  which  we  held  on  the  sist  of  De 
cember — the  eve  of  freedom. 

Mr.    Thompson    himself  corroborated    this 
account  in  a  letter  written  a  month  later: 

On  New  Year's  Day  I  addressed  a 
crowded  assembly  of  unemployed  operatives 

53 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

in  the  town  of  Heywood,  near  Manchester, 
and  spoke  to  them  for  two  hours  about  the 
slaveholders'  Rebellion.  They  were  united 
and  vociferous  in  the  expression  of  their 
willingness  to  suffer  all  the  hardships  con 
sequent  upon  a  want  of  cotton,  if  thereby 
the  liberty  of  the  victims  of  Southern  des 
potism  might  be  promoted.  All  honor  to 
the  half  million  of  our  working  population 
in  Lancashire,  Cheshire  and  elsewhere,  who 
are  bearing  with  heroic  fortitude  the  griev 
ous  privations  which  your  war  has  entailed 
upon  them !  The  four  millions  of  slaves  in 
America  have  no  sincerer  friends  than  the 
lean,  palefaced  idle  people,  who  are  recon 
ciled  to  their  meager  fare  and  desolate 
homes  by  the  thought  that  their  trials  are 
working  out  the  deliverance  of  the  op 
pressed  children  of  your  country.  Their 
sublime  resignation,  their  self-forgetfulness, 
their  observance  of  law,  their  whole-souled 
love  of  the  cause  of  human  freedom,  their 
quick  and  clear  perception  of  the  merits  of 
the  question  between  North  and  South,  and 
their  appreciation  of  the  labor  question  in 
volved  in  the  "irrepressible  conflict,"  are 
extorting  the  admiration  of  all  classes  of 
the  community  and  are  reading  the  nation 
a  valuable  lesson, 


54 


CHAPTER    VII 
GARRISON    THE    PROPHET 

Rejoice,  and  be  exceeding  glad,     .    .     .    for  so  persecuted 
they  the  prophets  which  were  before  you. — St.  Matthew,  v:i2. 

The  career  of  Garrison  is  in  many  ways 
typical  of  that  class  of  men  who  in  the  days 
of  the  ancient  Hebrews  were  called  prophets. 
Brought  up  in  a  strictly  conventional  and 
orthodox  manner,  he  was  in  his  youth  a  Puri 
tan  of  the  Puritans,  a  firm  believer  in  the 
infallibility  of  the  Bible  and  the  divine  char 
acter  of  the  church.  Educated  in  a  society 
which  still  remembered  the  days  of  the  Revo 
lution,  he  was  taught  to  look  upon  that  war 
as  one  ordained  by  heaven,  and  upon  Ameri 
can  institutions  as  the  embodiment  of  abso 
lute  justice.  Gradually,  however,  doubts 
crept  into  his  mind.  He  felt  instinctively  that 
physical  combat  was  beneath  the  dignity  of 
man.  How  then  could  wars  be  right?  And 
how  could  governments  which  depend  upon 
jttiHtaryZpo^verbe'^^  was 

an  evident  fruit  of  coercion,  the  very 
redudio  ad  absurdvm  of  it;  and  yet  it  was 
supported  by  the  government,  and  by  its 

55 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

fundamental  law,  the  Constitution,  and  it 
was  openly  abetted  and  defended  by  the 
church.  Was  it  possible  to  worship  institu 
tions  which  brought  forth  such  harvests?  By 
their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,  and  this  fruit 
was  rotten  to  the  core.  And  he  began  to 
preach  a  crusade  against  coercion,  and  the 
government  which  enforced  it,  and  the  church 
which  blessed  it.  Public  opinion  in  Garri 
son's  time,  and  to  a  lesser  degree  to-day  also, 
was  singularly  alike  in  religious  and  political 
matters.  The  pope,  a  man,  had  been  deposed 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Bible,  a  writing, 
set  up  in  his  place.  The  king,  a  man,  had  been 
dismissed  on  the  other,  and  the  Constitution, 
a  writing,  enthroned  in  his  place.  The  infal 
libility  of  the  pope  had  been  transferred  to 
the  Bible,  and  the  majesty  of  the  king  to  the 
Constitution,  and  protestantism  and  democ 
racy  seemed  destined  to  end  in  the  worship 
of  printer's  ink.  It  was  the  old  error  which 
has  always  called  forth  the  prophet  to 
denounce  it — the  error  of  exalting  the  letter 
above  the  spirit.  If  protestantism  and  democ 
racy  have  any  meaning,  they  stand  for  free 
dom;  and  yet  Garrison  found  them  approv 
ing  of  military  coercion,  warfare  and  slavery. 
What  was  he  to  do?  It  was  a  hard  wrench 
for  him.  It  required  many  months  for  him 
to  appreciate  the  true  bearings  of  the  situa 
tion,  but  when  he  once  saw  clearly  that  his 

56 


Garrison   the   Prophet 

own  standards  of  ethics  were  far  higher  than 
those  of  church  and  state,  he  took  the  part  of 
the  spirit  against  the  letter,  and  of  the  living 
truth  against  the  fossilized  lie.  And  the 
result  was  that  which  no  prophet  has  ever 
escaped.  He  was  persecuted  and  hounded. 
He  was  called  an  infidel  and  blasphemer  and 
Sabbath-breaker.  He  was  accused  of  stirring 
up  the  people  and  stimulating  insurrection 
among  the  slaves.  But  he  stood  firm,  remem 
bering  the  injunction  to  rejoice  and  be 
exceeding  glad,  for  so  had  they  persecuted 
the  prophets  which  were  before  him. 

Garrison  was  a  prophet,  too,  in  the  char 
acter  of  his  work.  His  denunciation  of 
wrong  was  in  the  language  of  Isaiah 
and  Amos;  he  had  their  fiery  spirit  and 
unmeasured  tongue.  It  is  easy  to  argue 
that  this  temper  is  unkind  and  unchristian, 
but  I  confess  that  I  like  it,  when  it  has  no 
personal  intent.  Take  away  the  "woes"  which 
Jesus  pronounced  against  pharisaism  and 
hypocrisy,  and  you  leave  his  character 
enfeebled.  Somehow  a  loving  heart  and 
strong  language  against  evil  can  contrive  to 
thrive  together.  And  in  private  life  Garrison 
was  all  kindliness,  devoted  to  his  wife  and 
children  and  friends,  and  in  turn  almost 
adored  by  them.  Nor,  so  far  as  I  know, 
did  he  ever  use  harsh  words  towards  any 
man  to  his  face,  and  if  he  erred  in  this  respect 

57 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

occasionally  in  his  writing,  it  was  because  he 
took  the  individual  as  the  incarnation  of  a 
wrong.  His  personal  geniality  and  benig- 
nancy  among  his  acquaintances  were  so  great 
that  it  seemed  impossible  that  he  was  the 
man  who  could,  when  occasion  demanded, 
thunder  against  wickedness  in  high  places. 
There  was  no  limit  to  his  courage  when 
attacking  the  evils  of  slavery.  While  at 
Baltimore  he  showed  again  and  again  his 
willingness  to  run  any  risk  in  stigmatizing 
the  conduct  of  those  who  were  engaged  in 
the  slave  trade,  if  necessary  by  name;  and 
one  ruffian  who  threatened  him,  he  invited  to 
come  and  meet  him. 

He  was  free,  too,  from  some  of  the  common 
defects  of  reformers.  There  was  nothing 
abnormal  about  him,  except  his  philanthropy. 
As  a  boy  he  was  active  in  sports,  a  good 
swimmer  and  skater.  He  sympathized  heart 
ily  with  the  struggle  of  the  Greeks  for  inde 
pendence,  and,  having  not  yet  formulated  his 
belief  in  the  immorality  of  war,  he  thought 
seriously  of  volunteering  to  fight  in  their 
behalf.  His  constitution  was  strong,  and,  so 
far  from  suffering  from  indigestion  (which 
accounts  for  so  much  sour  criticism  of  things 
as  they  are),  he  declared  that  he  never  knew 
that  he  had  a  stomach.  And  yet  there  was 
something  of  New  England  asceticism  about 
him,  for  which  I  do  not  propose  to  apologize. 

58 


Garrison   the   Prophet 

The  example  of  his  father  and  of  a  brother 
who  also  died  a  drunkard  naturally  turned 
him  against  strong  drink  and  the  coercion  of 
bad  habits.  He  had  little  patience  with  smok 
ing  or  loose  or  self-indulgent  habits  of  any 
kind.  One  of  his  closest  followers  of  a 
younger  generation  became  in  later  years  a 
disciple  of  Henry  George  and  an  advocate  of 
equal  rights  in  the  raw  material  of  the  globe. 
Upon  his  first  meeting  with  Mr.  George,  the 
great  land  reformer  invited  him  into  a  beer- 
saloon  to  discuss  the  question  with  him,  and 
the  new  recruit  was  shocked  at  the  idea. 
Abolitionists  of  the  true  stripe  looked  upon 
the  saloon  as  the  gate  of  hell,  and  nothing 
else.  But  in  movements  of  this  kind,  ascetic 
ism,  the  control  of  the  appetites,  the  ascend 
ancy  of  the  mind  above  things,  has  its  place, 
and  so,  too,  does  the  easy-going  acceptance 
of  democratic  manners  with  their  sociability 
and  joviality.  It  is  foolish  to  quarrel  with 
these  differences  of  temperament,  for  they 
diversify  human  nature  and  make  the  world 
a  pleasanter  place  to  live  in.  Certainly  it 
would  lack  a  good  deal  of  backbone  if  the 
Puritan  ideals  were  lost  for  good  and  all. 
/Garrison  was  a  Puritan  to  the  end,  and  one 
of  the  best  specimens  of  that  strong  type. 

And  above  all  he  was  a  prophet  in  his  abso 
lute  merger  of  himself  in  his  cause.  Outside 
of  it  he  had  no  personal  ambition;  and  there 

59 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

|  is  something  which  compels  admiration  in 
>(  this  attitude. "  'Garrison  belonged  to  a  higher 
class  of  men  than  Lincoln,\for  he  forgot  him 
self  in  his  desire  for  the  triumph  of  what  he 
regarded  as  the  rigmO  Lincoln's  great  achieve 
ments  were  incidents  in  a  political  career  of 
the  ordinary  kind,  the  object  of  which  was 
the  promotion  of  his  own  interests  and  the 
assurance  of  his  own  advancement.  As  the 
world  goes,  we  cannot  criticize  the  ambitious 
lawyer,  ready  to  argue  any  side  of  any  case, 
nor  the  ambitious  politician  who  wishes  to 
be  conspicuous;  but  such  occupations  and 
aspirations  would  be  impossible  to  the  noblest 
type  of  man.  Garrison  would  at  any  moment 
have  given  his  life  and  devoted  his  name  to 
oblivion,  if  by  so  doing  he  could  have  helped 
his  cause.  And  he  was  withal  the  most 
modest  of  men,  even  in  conventions  of  his 
own  people  avoiding  all  appearance  of  dic 
tation. 

And  the  last  mark  of  prophethood  was  also 
Garrison's.  Despised  and  rejected  of  men 
^  during  the  active  part  of  his  career,  insulted, 
mobbed,  almost  massacred,  yet,  even  sooner 
than  is  usually  the  case,  the  children  of  those 
who  would  have  stoned  him  have  raised 
monuments  to  his  memory.  The  fine  statue 
on  Commonwealth  avenue,  Boston,  in  the 
very  city  which  once  nearly  murdered  him, 
bears  on  its  pedestal  the  words  taken  from 

60 


Garrison  the   Prophet 

the  first  editorial  in  the  Liberator,  "I  am  in 
earnest,  .  .  .  and  I  will  be  heard,"  and 
teaches  a  profound  lesson  to  the  young 
American  as  to  the  possibilities  of  the  career 
of  the  prophet,  even  at  this  late  day.  What 
man  walking  the  streets  of  Boston  in  the 
winter  of  1831  would  have  guessed  that  the 
most  important  bit  of  contemporary  history 
was  being  transacted  in  an  obscure  garret? 
Their  minds  were  occupied  with  the  doings 
of  Congress  and  the  dispatches  from  London 
and  Paris,  but  the  real  motive  power  of 
society  rarely  shows  itself  on  the  surface. 
What  man  who  looked  on  at  the  Boston  mob 
of  1835  would  have  supposed  for  a  moment 
that  the  hatless,  coatless,  bewildered  victim 
of  the  crowd  would  conquer  in  the  end,  and 
that  the  men  who  were  threatening  him  would 
live  to  be  ashamed  of  their  cause?  I  think  it 
was  Whittier  who  advised  young  men  to 
seek  for  some  just  and  despised  cause  and 
attach  themselves  to  it.  Even  from  the  stand 
point  of  worldly  wisdom,  this  is  not  such  bad 
advice.  The  man  who  loses  his  life  finds  it. 
Garrison  might  have  become  a  leading  editor, 
or  author,  or  poet,  or  statesman  (for  he 
possessed  the  gifts  necessary  for  these  call 
ings),  and  he  might  have  left  a  comfortable 
fortune  to  his  children;  but  it  is  doubtful  if 
in  any  other  way  than  as  a  prophet  he  would 
have  won  a  monument  for  himself. 

61 


CHAPTER    VIII 
GARRISON    THE    NON-RESISTANT 

Oh,  it  is  excellent 

To  have  a  giant's  strength;  but  it  is  tyrannous 
To  use  it  like  a  giant. 

— SHAKSPERE,  "Measure  for  Measure." 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  I  am  treating 
Garrison  as  primarily  a  non-resistant,  and 
only  secondarily  as  an  Abolitionist;  for  it 
was  only  by  chance  that  his  attention  was 
turned  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  while  his 
instinctive  dislike  of  coercion  and  love  of  free 
dom  were  wider  and  earlier.  They  accounted 
for  his  condemnation  of  war,  and  they  would 
have  led  him  in  his  youth  to  take  the  side  of 
liberty  in  any  conflict  which  the  condition  of 
the  times  might  have  forced  upon  him.  Gar 
rison  recognized  fully  the  profounder  claims 
of  non-resistance  and  the  fact  that  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery  was  a  mere  episode  in  its 
history.  The  coercion  of  man  by  man  was 
the  root  of  slavery,  and  it  is  also  the  root  of 
a  thousand  other  ills.  Between  nations  it 
means  war  and  conquest  and  imperialism  and 
international  misunderstandings  and  hatreds 

62 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

and  tariffs.  Massachusetts  and  Boston  have 
had  the  honor  of  leading  in  many  campaigns 
for  freedom.  They  were  the  first  to  resent 
the  tyranny  of  George  III.  Under  Garrison 
they  were  the  headquarters  of  the  anti-slavery 
movement.  Recently  we  have  found  there  the 
center  of  protest  against  the  seizure  and  sub 
jugation  of  the  Philippines.  But  in  every 
case  it  has  been  a  select  minority  which  has 
taken  up  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  in  every 
case  this  minority  has  been  reviled  and 
despised.  Sam  Adams  was  not  respectable. 
Garrison  was  an  "infidel"  agitator.  And 
to-day  the  anti-imperialists,  the  logical  suc 
cessors  of  Adams  and  Garrison  in  claiming 
freedom  for  all,  are  treated  with  scant  cour 
tesy.  Let  them  possess  their  souls  in 
patience.  They  will  have  their  reward. 

But  each  of  these  movements  was  but  an 
incident  in  the  grand  march  toward  freedom, 
and  Garrison  saw  the  wider  aspects  of  his 
faith.  He  was  one  of  the  heralds  of  a  new 
instinct — the  instinct  that  man  belongs  to  a 
higher  plane  than  that  of  physical  violence, 
and  that  he  must  rise  above  the  methods  of 
brute  force  in  dealing  with  his  fellows.  The 
evolution  of  the  race  is  a  mysterious  thing. 
Whence  came  the  ideas  of  association,  of  love 
of  neighbor,  and  of  love  of  enemies?  The 
new  seed-thoughts  take  root  at  first  in  a 
single  mind  or  in  a  very  few  select  ones,  and 

63 


Garrison   the   Nan-Resistant 

centuries  pass  before  the  stony  hearts  of  men 
at  large  are  fructified.  These  are  real 
instincts,  like  that  which  sends  the  chick 
after  its  food  before  it  is  quite  free  of  the 
egg.  And  the  faint  promise  of  that  desire  in 
the  egg  may  have  induced  it  to  make  an 
immense  effort  in  the  dark — to  attempt  the 
impossible — to  break  down  its  old  environ 
ment,  apparently  impervious  and  eternal,  and 
seek  a  new  world  of  infinite  possibilities. 
There  are  two  sides  to  evolution — that  usu 
ally  dwelt  upon,  of  conformity  to  environ 
ment — and  that  far  more  significant  one  of 
dissatisfaction  with  environment,  determina 
tion  to  rise  above  it,  and  the  actual  effort 
against  all  nature  to  discover  or  create  a  new 
one.  Life  means  not  submission  to,  but  mas 
tery  of,  environment,  and  every  seed  is  at 
heart  a  rebel.  The  parts  of  chaos  were  well 
suited  to  each  other  and  to  the  whole. 
Whence  came  the  whisper  that  there  was 
something  better,  and  the  struggle  of  the 
universe  to  lift  itself,  as  it  were,  by  its  own 
waist-band?  It  was  an  effort  to  do  the 
impossible,  and  it  succeeded.  Discontent 
with  environment  is  a  motive  power,  and 
Garrison's  instinctive  aversion  to  coercion 
was  a  new  creative  principle  which  will  yet 
have  its  preponderant  part  to  play  in  the  his 
tory  of  man.  Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  he  was  the  first  man  to  feel  the 

64 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

novel  truth.  It  had  been  let  loose  many 
centuries  earlier,  and  here  and  there  there 
had  always  been  witnesses  to  it;  but  in  his 
own  day  and  generation  Garrison  was  a 
pioneer  of  non-resistance,  and  he  was  no 
imitator  or  repeater,  but  he  felt  its  direct 
claims  in  his  own  consciousness. 

And  men  are  governed  and  must  be 
governed  by  their  feelings.  We  are  in  the 
habit  of  talking  of  logic  as  if  it  were  superior 
to  sentiment;  but  all  logic  starts  out  from 
sentiment,  and  every  syllogism  can  be  traced 
back  to  a  feeling — a  taste — about  which  it  is 
not  to  be  disputed.  Even  mathematics,  the 
most  logical  of  sciences,  rests  upon  axioms, 
and  axioms  are  feelings.  We  say  that  a 
straight  line  is  the  shortest  distance  between 
two  points,  because  we  "feel"  that  it  is;  and 
in  the  same  way  we  believe  that  two  parallel 
lines  can  never  meet,  and  that  one  and  one 
always  make  two.  But  these  are  all  mere 
feelings,  and  the  new  mathematicians  are 
actually  arguing  to-day  that  parallel  lines  can 
meet,  and  that  our  axiomatic  feelings  are 
erroneous.  Men  often  think  that  they  are 
guided  by  reason,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact 
they  really  feel  their  way ;  and  it  is  not  a  bad 
plan  when  logic  leads  you  to  some  act  which 
shocks  your  feelings,  to  use  these  latter  as 
tests  of  logic.  It  is  this  humble,  instinctive 
way  of  behaving  which  we  call  common- 

65 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

sense,  and  common-sense  is  the  natural  cor 
rective  of  logic — just  as  when,  sailing  by 
right  ascension  and  declination,  we  see  the 
breakers  ahead,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  fall 
back  on  the  vulgar  assistance  of  the  lead. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  pure  logic.  We 
are  always  guided  either  by  feeling  or  by 
feeling-plus-logic;  and  hence  logic,  so  far 
from  adding  certainty  to  our  conclusions, 
rather,  by  bringing  in  a  new  element,  adds  a 
new  possibility  of  error.  The  chief  use  of 
logic  is  not  to  show  me  what  to  do,  but  to 
afford  me  a  rational  excuse  for  doing  what 
common-sense  dictates.  It  is  not  the  founda 
tion  on  which  I  build  my  wall,  but  the  prop 
with  which  I  shore  it  up  when  it  begins  to 
look  shaky.  All  the  good  and  all  the  evil  in 
the  world  have  been  caused  by  feelings,  but 
probably  feelings-plus-logic  have  done  more 
harm  in  the  long  run  than  undiluted  feelings. 
Logic  is  relentless.  The  logic  of  Torquemada 
was  unanswerable.  Heretics  were  damned. 
They  made  converts  who  were  also  damned. 
It  was  better  to  torture  and  kill  a  few  of 
them  than  to  consign  a  large  portion  of  the 
race  to  hell  forever.  Q.  E.  D.  The  argument 
is  unassailable,  but  if  Torquemada  had  con 
sulted  his  heart  for  a  moment  he  would  have 
thrown  the  whole  flimsy  sophism  overboard. 
If  I  may  indulge  in  a  Hibernicism  I  would 
say  that  it  is  a  good  thing  to  keep  your  heart 

66 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

at  your  elbow.  For  the  heart  is  the  root  of 
all,  and  feeling  is  the  mother  of  logic,  though 
logic  often  disowns  its  mother  and  endeavors 
to  cut  loose  from  her  apron  strings,  ashamed 
apparently  of  its  low  birth.  True  logic 
should  be  proud  of  its  maternal  ancestor,  and 
delight  in  calling  in  the  good  old  lady  when 
ever  it  seems  to  be  coming  to  grief. 

And  clearly  the  idea  that  logic  can  inde 
pendently  lay  down  eternal  truths  is  a  fallacy, 
for  the  human  race  is  living  and  growing.  Our 
viewpoints  vary  and  change  from  day  to  day. 
Our  feelings  are  different  from  those  of  our 
fathers,  and  the  logical  structure  which  we 
rear  upon  them  merely  adds  to  the  confusion. 
Garrison  and  Draco  could  not  have  argued 
intelligibly  together  because  their  root-feel 
ings  were  different — they  belonged  to  differ 
ent  epochs.  Axioms  alter  from  age  to  age, 
and  the  Quod  erat  demonstrandum  of  one 
period  is  the  Redudio  ad  absurdum  of  the 
next.  And  the  hard  logic  of  an  earlier  age 
often  survives  into  a  new  generation  against 
whose  deepest  instincts  it  offends,  and  yet 
we  persist  in  our  allegiance  to  the  old  truth, 
become  falsehood.  There  is  therefore  a  grain 
of  truth  in  the  common  saying  that  a  rule  of 
action  is  correct  in  theory  but  not  in  practice. 
Thus  the  axiom  that  it  is  best  to  hit  a  man 
who  differs  from  you  over  the  head  has  been 
fossilized  and  preserved  by  the  logical  insti- 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

tutions  founded  upon  it,  into  the  midst  of  a 
period  in  which  men  feel  instinctively  that 
other  less  clumsy  methods  of  treatment  are 
better.  We  owe  a  lot  of  trouble  to  the 
Q.  E.  D.'s.  And  Garrison's  mistake  was  not 
that  he  adopted  a  wrong  principle,  but  that 
he  was  ahead  of  his  times.  He  believed  that 
the  declaration  of  the  non-resistant  conven 
tion  would  sweep  over  the  country  as  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  had  done,  only 
with  a  more  profound  and  intense  effect,  as  it 
was  infinitely  wider  in  scope.  But  two  things 
are  necessary  to  the  success  of  a  cause — not 
only  a  prophet,  but  also  a  people  capable  of 
understanding  the  prophet;  and  this  audience 
was  lacking  to  Garrison.  He  would  have 
liked  to  be  a  leader  to  guide  the  world  into 
the  paths  of  peace.  He  had  to  content  him 
self  in  this  regard  with  acting  as  a  pioneer 
to  stake  out  the  land  which  some  day  man 
kind  will  occupy.  His  immediate  leadership 
was  confined  to  a  cause  which  in  comparison 
was  limited  and  local. 

But  was  this  non-resistance  principle  of 
Garrison's  a  true  one?  And  is  there  any 
prospect  that  it  will  triumph  in  the  future? 
As  an  axiomatic  statement  its  final  sanction 
must  be  found  in  the  individual  conscious 
ness.  Answer  for  yourself.  Is  there  nothing 
at  the  bottom  of  your  heart  which  suggests 
to  you  at  your  best  moments  that  the  exer- 

68 


Garrison  the   Non-Resistant 

cise  of  physical  force  against  your  fellows  is 
unworthy  of  you?  Has  not  the  advance  of 
civilization  made  men  more  and  more  skep 
tical  of  the  virtues  of  violence?  Many  men, 
at  any  rate,  while  repudiating  the  claims  of 
non-resistance,  pay  it  the  indirect  compliment 
of  worshiping  or  honoring  supremely  the 
men  who  have  taught  it.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  about  it — violence  is  played  out.  The 
use  of  physical  force  in  the  management  of 
rational  creatures  is  a  survival  of  less  enlight 
ened  times.  The  tendency  is  away  from  vio 
lence  of  all  kinds.  Most  of  the  evils  of  the 
world  are  caused  by  violence.  Read  the  his 
tory  of  mankind  from  the  monuments  of 
Assyria  and  Egypt  down  to  the  morning's 
news,  and  you  will  see  that  it  is  one  long 
record  of  violence — man  lifting  up  his  hand 
against  man  and  nation  against  nation.  Mur 
der,  arson,  robbery — robbery,  arson,  murder — 
it  is  the  same  old  story  over  and  over  again. 
And  to-day  the  dead  and  wounded  lie  all 
around  us,  not  on  the  obvious  battlefield 
only,  but  in  city  and  town  and  hamlet.  Visit 
the  slums  of  New  York  or  Chicago  or  Lon 
don.  See  the  poverty  and  crime  and  disease 
which  come  from  overcrowding  and  enforced 
idleness  and  excessive  labor  side  by  side — 
the  necessary  consequences  of  monopolizing 
by  force  the  natural  opportunities  of  the 
earth;  men  and  women  suffering  from  a  rigid 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

and  artificial  arrangement  of  things  formed 
and  perpetuated  in  the  last  resort  by  the 
mailed  hand  of  society,  held  ever  in  readiness 
to  crush  the  offender.  The  physical  struggle 
has  never  ceased,  disguise  it  as  we  may 
endeavor.  Society  has  always  been  a  Donny- 
brook  Fair,  and  it  is  high  time  that  we  should 
be  ashamed  of  our  manners,  for  nothing  could 
be  more  vulgar  than  this  everlasting  appeal 
to  the  cudgel. 

And  the  way  to  stop  is  to  stop !  This  seems 
such  a  simple  remedy  that  men  will  have  none 
of  it.  Yes,  violence  is  an  evil,  they  say;  let 
us  put  it  down  by  more  violence.  And  we 
start  out,  each  of  us  with  his  own  ideas  and 
his  own  weapons,  and  we  proceed  to  break 
each  other's  heads  again,  and  in  so  doing  we 
are  repeating  the  old  useless  conflicts  of  the 
Pharaohs.  This  noisy,  bloody  business  is  not 
the  real  history  of  the  world.  Its  real  history 
is  the  history  of  ideas.  The  real  battle  that 
counts  is  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men. 
Let  us  order  our  armies  up  to  that  plane. 
And  at  our  best,  I  repeat  it,  we  all  feel  a  call 
to  rise  to  that  higher  level.  There  is  some 
thing  degrading  in  the  use  of  force  against 
others,  and  we  are  all  conscious  of  it  at  the 
time.  It  is  impossible  to  kick  anything,  I 
do  not  care  what,  and  feel  human.  Catch 
yourself  flagrante  delido  the  next  time  and 

70 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

arraign  yourself  at  your  own  bar,  and  I 
predict  that  you  will  find  yourself  guilty.  It 
is  a  debasing  proceeding.  It  is  not  our  proper 
method,  and  if  our  environment  seems 
to  demand  it,  we  must  hope  and  pray 
and  work  for  a  new  one;  and  the  best 
way  to  create  a  new  one  is  (so  far  as  in  us 
lies)  to  behave  as  if  it  had  already  arrived. 
Overcome  evil  with  good.  That  is  the  truly 
human  way.  Let  others  get  the  better  of  us 
in  this  matter  of  violence.  Forgive  them. 
Let  by-gones  be  by-gones.  Stop  this  eternal 
bookkeeping  of  offenses  between  you  and 
your  neighbor,  and  do  what  you  can  to 
bequeath  a  clean  slate  to  posterity. 

And  the  non-resistant  is  no  weakling.  Gar 
rison  himself  is  proof  enough  of  that.  The 
very  renunciation  of  physical  force  seems  to 
give  a  new  and  loftier  power  to  a  man. 
No,  the  strenuous  man  is  not  the  soldier  on 
horseback  with  saber  drawn,  but  rather  the 
man  with  folded  arms  who  sees  a  new  truth 
and  utters  it  regardless  of  consequences.  No 
one  can  injure  the  man  who  refuses  to  be 
hurt.  You  may  kill  him  but  you  cannot  touch 
the  man  in  him.  In  another  place  I  have 
given  some  examples1  of  the  power  and 
influence  of  such  men  even  upon  the  savages 

^'Tolstoy  and  His  Message,"   Funk  &  Wagnalls  Company, 
New  York. 

71 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

of  America  and  Africa.1  The  most  influential 
men  in  history  have  eschewed  physical  force 
as  an  instrument.  What  man  of  all  has 
exerted  the  deepest,  widest  influence  upon 
mankind?  Surely  Jesus  Christ  from  whom 
the  very  term  "non-resistant"  is  derived.  And 
after  him?  Siddartha,  the  Buddha,  who  abso 
lutely  condemned  all  violence.  What  man 
to-day  in  the  Russian  Empire,  that  home  of 
brute  force,  has  the  greatest  import  for  the 
world?  Leo  Tolstoy,  without  doubt,  the  man 
who  would  not  lift  his  hand  to  compel.  And 
Garrison,  how  do  you  explain  the  fact  that  he, 
with  his  hands  tied  behind  his  back,  was  the 
main  motive  power  in  that  movement  which 
has  dwarfed  all  the  rest  of  our  history? 

Let  us  beware,  however,  of  imitations  and 
travesties  of  non-resistance.  It  is  no  colorless, 
negative  quality,  and  should  have  no  taint  of 
timidity,  no  suspicion  of  effeminacy.  Let  us 
be  quite  sure  that  we  are  above  violence,  and 
not  beneath  it.  It  is  far  better  to  fight  to  the 
death  than  to  decline  the  combat  from 
cowardice,  whatever  may  be  the  name  behind 
which  we  mask  it.  A  soft  answer  may,  too, 
be  turned  into  an  offense,  if  the  wrong 
emphasis  is  placed  upon  it.  An  apology 

i  De  Quincey  in  one  of  his  articles  on  "Walking  Stewart," 
the  eccentric  traveller,  quotes  the  latter  to  the  following  effect: 
"It  was  generally  supposed,  he  said,  that  the  civilized  traveller 
among  savages  might  lay  his  account  with  meeting  unprovoked 
violence,  except  in  so  far  as  he  carried  arms  for  his  protection. 
Now  he  had  found  it  by  much  the  safer  plan  to  carry  no  arms." 

72 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

should  not  come  too  easily.  It  ought  to  be  a 
sort  of  self-punishment  which  will  make  me 
hesitate  another  time  before  incurring  my 
own  displeasure.  I  have  a  friend  who  apolo> 
gizes  at  the  least  provocation — "Oh,  yes,  to  be 
sure.  You  are  quite  right.  I  am  awfully 
sorry;"  and  in  five  minutes  he  will  be  doing 
the  same  thing  again,  and  rattling  off  the 
same  formula.  An  over-issue  of  apologies  is 
like  an  over-issue  of  paper  dollars;  it  makes 
them  altogether  valueless.  The  superficial 
readiness  to  forgive  comes  under  the  same 
category.  I  once  read  a  letter  in  which  the 
writer  apparently  inflicted  an  injury  upon  the 
recipient.  He  closed  it  glibly  as  follows:  "I 
know  you  will  resent  this,  but  I  forgive  you 
freely  beforehand."  Of  course,  this  coin  was 
counterfeit  on  its  face.  Forgiveness  and 
apology,  from  sinned  against  and  sinning, 
must  represent  positive  sympathy  with  the 
other  party,  or  they  really  become  affronts. 
Forgiveness  is  a  sort  of  self -blame,  too;  you 
blame  yourself  for  not  having  forgiven 
before — for  having  to  forgive  at  all — for  taking 
any  notice  whatever  of  the  offense,  and  it  is 
the  lack  of  universal  sympathy  which  makes 
either  necessary.  You  find  yourself  out  of 
tune,  like  a  violin,  and  you  proceed  to  screw 
yourself  up  to  the  proper  pitch.  The  chief 
use  of  forgiveness  and  apology  is  to  the  for- 
giver  and  apologizer. 

73 


CHAPTER    IX 

THE      DELIMITATION      OF     NON- 
RESISTANCE 

That  society  is  the  greatest  where  the  highest  truths  be 
come  practical. 

-SWAMI  VIVEKANANDA. 

Garrison  expressed  the  obligation  of  non- 
resistance  in  its  strongest  form,  and  would 
admit  of  no  exception  or  qualification.  He 
declared  that  he  would  not  defend  his  wife 
by  force  in  case  of  an  assault,  and  for  such 
extreme  expressions  he  has  been  freely  criti 
cized.  For  my  part  I  do  not  object  to  over 
statements  (if  this  is  one).  They  have  their 
dramatic  value,  and  carry  their  cause  when 
a  carefully  trimmed  shaft  falls  short.  Just 
as  an  athlete  makes  his  muscles  rigid  one 
at  a  time,  first  the  right  arm  and  then  the 
left,  now  the  waist  muscles  and  then  those 
of  the  legs — so  mankind  may  well  exercise 
its  various  powers  to  the  utmost  in  turn. 
The  all-round  man  is  the  ideal,  but  until  we 
can  produce  him  we  must  specialize  more  or 
less.  I  delight  in  the  strong  expression  of 
an  idea,  from  Francis  of  Assisi  to  Nietzsche, 

74 


Delimitation   of   Non-Resistance 

for  I  find  the  same  muscle  imperfectly  devel 
oped  in  myself.  Each  muscle  needs  the 
greatest  development,  and  perfection  will 
come  with  the  equilibrium  of  the  most  vigor 
ous  opposites,  and  not  with  their  atrophy. 
Pull  your  side  of  the  boat  and  let  me  pull 
mine.  Too  much  time  is  wasted  in  port's 
swearing  at  starboard  and  starboard  at  port. 
Your  main  duty  is  to  be  sincere  and  to  be 
strong  and  to  pull. 

But  I  believe  that  Garrison  was  right  for 
other  reasons  than  these.  He  was  conscious 
of  a  new  moral  obligation  to  refrain  from 
violence  of  all  kinds,  and  it  came  to  him  as 
an  abstract  unqualified  principle  of  universal 
application.  It  is  of  the  very  nature  of  moral 
principles  that  they  transcend  present  environ 
ments  and  point  to  the  future.  The  fact  that 
they  are  impracticable  is  the  very  source  of 
their  strength,  for  the  attempt  to  apply  them 
tends  to  transform  the  world.  What  dead 
things  our  principles  would  be  if  we  could 
actually  live  up  to  them!  They  create  and 
regenerate  because  they  are  impossible.  It 
is  impossible  to  be  perfect  in  an  imperfect 
environment,  and  yet  it  is  our  duty  to  be 
perfect;  and  this  inherent  contradiction  in 
the  moral  world  is  the  reason  for  the  para 
doxical  character  of  all  great  teaching  and  the 
guaranty  of  perpetual  improvement  in  the 
human  race.  Hence  we  cannot  express  our 

75 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

obligations  in  too  strong  and  absolute  terms, 
and  the  task  of  whittling  them  down  to  suit 
emergencies  emasculates  them  and  renders 
them  useless. 

Take  the  obligation  of  telling  the  truth. 
Every  man  feels  the  beauty  of  this  principle, 
and  yet  we  know  that  there  are  occasions 
upon  which  we  might  utter  falsehoods  and 
justify  ourselves  in  so  doing.  But  is  it  not 
still  true  that  the  act  of  lying  to  an  armed 
enemy,  for  instance,  to  save  the  life  of  a 
child  would  be  an  unpleasant  act — that  it 
would  cause  us  a  certain  degree  of  offense — 
that  we  would  wish  to  escape  the  apparent 
necessity?  Is  it  not  difficult  to  conceive  of 
such  a  lie  on  the  lips  of  a  Jesus  or  a  Buddha? 
and  do  we  not  instinctively  take  it  for  granted 
that  they  would  find  some  other  way  out  of 
the  dilemma?  And  so  with  courage  and 
cowardice.  Where  shall  the  line  between 
them  be  drawn?  At  what  degree  of  danger 
may  the  brave  man  be  justified  in  flinching? 
Surely  there  is  but  one  proper  rule  of  action 
and  that  is,  Never  flinch.  Nature  will  draw 
the  line  without  our  assistance.  I  am  con 
vinced  that  the  attempts  to  delimit  and 
define  moral  laws  of  this  kind  is  demor 
alizing.  They  will  delimit  themselves 
sufficiently  in  practice.  We  must  accept 
them  in  their  fullest  sense,  and  then 
practice  them  as  best  we  can,  being  assured 

76 


Delimitation    of   Non-Resistance 

that  the  mental  perplexity  which  besets  us  is 
a  part  of  the  growing  pains  of  the  race.  Not 
at  all  that  such  principles  must  be  accepted 
as  objective,  dead,  literal  laws,  but  rather  as 
living  principles  with  all  the  transforming 
potencies  of  life.  The  injunction  of  the  Dec 
alogue  against  slaughter  has  never  been 
improved  upon.  "Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  said 
the  law-giver,  and  unloosed  a  living  moral 
principle — a  seed  with  infinite  possibilities  of 
growth  contained  in  it.  It  was  not  under 
stood  or  applied.  It  never  has  been 
understood  or  applied.  Perhaps  it  never  can 
be,  but  therein  lies  the  very  secret  of  its 
power  and  immortality.  Morality  is  not  a 
matter  of  rules  but  of  tendencies.  Our  own 
language  shows  it.  (And  what  wonders  of 
ancient  and  forgotten  wisdom  are  buried  in 
our  language!)  "Right"  and  "wrong" 
(wrung)  mean  "straight"  and  "crooked." 
Ethics  involve  the  direction  which  we  take 
to  a  goal,  and  are  of  necessity  relative  to  us 
and  our  present  position.  The  goal  should  be 
forever  beyond  us.  "Hitch  your  wagon  to  a 
star."  "Thou  shalt  not  kill."  Turn  your 
prow  that  way.  Avoid  killing.  Kill  just  as 
little  as  possible.  It  should  go  against  our 
grain  to  pull  up  a  weed  or  cut  down  a  tree. 
And  some  day  when  this  sense  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  life  has  been  fully  cultivated  by  the 
very  necessities  of  slaughter  which  surround 

77 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

us,  we  may  find  ourselves  graduated  into 
some  sphere  in  which  we  may  really  live  and 
let  live,  and  find  in  turn  some  new,  inac 
cessible  goal  held  up  before  us. 

But  it  is  a  mistake  to  assume  to  behave 
in  accordance  with  a  rigid  formula  express 
ing  a  principle  which  is  still  too  far  beyond 
us.  Garrison  felt  the  full  obligation  of  non- 
resistance.  Whether  he  would  have  felt  it 
in  the  case  of  an  attack  upon  his  wife  or  not, 
it  is  impossible  to  say;  but  we  must  not 
masquerade  upon  a  plane  to  which  we  have 
not  yet  attained.  I  would  not  advise  a  man  to 
act  counter  to  his  best  instincts  in  such  a 
case,  but  rather  to  endeavor  to  cultivate 
those  instincts.  We  may  be  pretty  sure  that 
in  such  a  case  Jesus  would  not  have  killed 
the  aggressor,  but  until  we  have  his  spirit 
we  can  hardly  justify  ourselves  in  adopting 
his  method.  The  spirit  of  violence  is  an  evil 
spirit,  and  it  can  only  be  effectually  cast  out 
by  the  spirit  of  love.  If  we  have  not  that 
spirit  of  love  which  would  render  acts  of 
violence  impossible  to  us,  it  is  futile  to 
attempt  to  act  as  if  we  had,  upon  any  pre 
conceived  intellectual  theory  of  what  we 
should  or  should  not  do.  The  doctrine  of 
non-resistance  is  not  a  cold  principle  to  be 
applied  like  the  rule  of  three  to  a  mathemati 
cal  problem,  but  a  living  power  of  the  soul. 
Avoid  violence.  Indulge  in  it  as  little  as 

78 


Delimitation    of   Non-Resistance 

possible.  Do  not  worry  yourself  about  any 
possible  exceptions  to  the  rule,  but  press  on 
toward  the  goal.  It  seems  to  me  that  these 
are  the  best  precepts. 

I  can  recall  the  case  of  a  man  who,  follow 
ing  Garrison's  example,  refrained  from  voting 
upon  the  ground  that  government  reposed 
upon  force,  and  that  force  was  the  wrong 
method.  But  after  a  few  years  he  found  that 
he  was  trying  to  live  on  a  plane  that  was  too 
high  for  him.  Militarism  and  monopoly  were 
ensconcing  themselves  ever  more  securely  in 
the  stronghold  of  office,  and  his  conscience 
smote  him  that  he  did  not  cast  his  ballot 
against  them.  So  he  changed  his  course  and 
began  to  vote  against  the  wrong,  as  he  con 
ceived  it,  and  for  the  better — there  being  no 
opportunity  to  vote  for  the  best.  And  straight 
way  his  conscience  left  him  at  peace.  He 
was  feeling  his  way,  that  was  all.  He  did 
not  deny  the  validity  of  the  law  of  non- 
resistance;  only  he  had  not  grown  up  to  its 
full  size.  For  him  to  masquerade  in  its  livery, 
so  far  as  voting  was  concerned,  was  a  clear 
case  of  false  pretenses.  He  was  inconsistent, 
but,  as  we  have  seen,  life  is  by  its  very  nature 
inconsistent.  The  absolute  logic  of  the  law  was 
qualified  by  his  own  personal  contribution  of 
common-sense.  Logic  and  common-sense! 
Between  them  is  stretched  taut  the  throb 
bing  web  and  woof  of  life !  All  controversy, 

79 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

conversation,  manners  and  customs,  laws, 
undertakings,  progress,  labor,  craft,  art, 
growth  and  life  issue  from  their  divergence. 
If  ever  they  shall  coincide,  then  at  last  will 
the  words,  "It  is  finished/*  be  written  once 
for  all  on  the  tomb  of  the  universe!  Mean^ 
while  it  is  our  business  to  strive  to  bring  our 
common-sense  up  to  the  plane  of  logic,  in 
the  blessed  certainty  that  we  can  never  fully 
succeed.  We  preach  logic  and  practice 
common-sense,  longing  for  an  environment 
where  they  may  be  lost  in  each  other.  We 
must  pull  our  environments  along  with  us — 
a  long  pull  and  a  strong  pull  and  a  pull  all  to 
gether;  but  to  act  upon  the  logical  conse 
quences  of  a  rule  which  we  have  ceased  to 
feel  would  leave  us  out  of  touch  with  our 
environment,  disjointed  and  unrelated,  with 
nothing  but  a  lifeless,  unassimilated  law  to 
comfort  us,  which  is  clearly  absurd.  In  the 
last  analysis  the  secret  of  sane  living  is  to 
go  on  compromising,  while  shouting,  "No 
compromise!"  The  would-be  abstainer  from 
voting  recognized  the  fact  that  a  perfect  man 
would  not  vote,  but  he  felt  like  a  hypocrite 
when  he  acted  like  a  perfect  man,  knowing 
himself  to  be  nothing  of  the  sort.  The  role 
did  not  suit  him.  I  ought  of  course  to  be 
perfect,  but  I  must  be  perfect  before  I  ad 
perfect,  and  it  is  downright  dishonesty  to 
imitate  the  empty  acts  of  perfection. 

80 


Delimitation   of   Non-Resistance 

This  matter  of  abstention — from  voting  or 
violence  or  anything  else — suggests  the  two 
opposite  ways  of  regarding  any  cause  directed 
against  any  evil.  I  may  have  an  over 
whelming  interest  in  the  cause  itself,  so  that 
I  quite  forget  myself  in  it.  My  one  effort  is 
to  put  an  end  to  the  evil.  Or  I  may  simply 
try  to  wash  my  hands  of  it — to  clear  my 
skirts  of  it — and  in  my  efforts  to  maintain  my 
personal  purity  I  may  neglect  altogether  the 
question  of  the  progress  of  the  cause.  Which 
is  the  better  vegetarian — the  one  who  starves 
himself  to  death  by  sticking  to  his  diet  under 
unfavorable  circumstances,  thus  making  him 
self  a  living,  or  rather  a  dying  argument 
against  his  principles ;  or  the  one  who  is  will 
ing  to  eat  meat  for  the  sake  of  the  cause? 
There  is  a  good  deal  to  be  said  for  the  latter 
individual.  And  so  the  non-resistant  who 
votes  in  the  direction  of  less  force  may  argue 
that  he  is  doing  more  for  the  cause  than  if 
he  abstained.  He  would  be  right;  and  the 
man  who  had  risen  to  a  higher  plane  and 
abjured  voting  would  also  be  right.  At  any 
rate  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  Garrison's 
scruples  about  voting  affected  his  influence. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  kept  him  clear  of 
the  bootless  embarrassments  of  third-party 
politics,  and  those  who  separated  from  him 
on  this  issue  were  soon  lost  in  the  crowd 

81 


Garrison    the    Non-Resistant 

who  were  ready  to  accept  any  kind  of  a  sub 
stitute  for  immediate  emancipation. 

There  is  a  refreshing  simplicity  in  hewing 
close  to  the  line  and  in  rejecting  all  tempta 
tion  to  casuistry.  We  blame  the  Jesuit  writers 
of  "confessional"  literature  as  if  they  were 
particularly  immoral  men;  but  it  was  not 
their  fault.  The  task  of  trying  to  determine 
how  near  a  man  may  come  to  doing  evil 
without  hurting  himself  is  in  itself  depraving. 
Fire  point-blank  at  the  sun,  and  the  force 
of  gravity  will  describe  a  parabola  for  you 
without  your  assistance.  Try  to  describe  a 
parabola  with  your  projectile  and  you  will 
signally  fail.  We  are  all  climbers  on  the 
slope  of  a  conical  peak,  much  too  steep  to 
mount  directly — striving  to  reach  the  top. 
Our  rule  is,  "Climb  straight  up";  and  the 
man  who  comes  the  nearest  to  this  impos 
sible  feat  will  get  there  first.  It  is  a  waste 
of  time  to  speculate  about  angles  and  spirals. 
Our  own  inertia  will  take  care  of  that  of 
itself.  And  it  is  consoling  to  know  that  the 
world  is  going  upward,  ever  more  and  more 
away  from  the  plane  of  brute-force.  In  the 
education  of  children,  the  treatment  of  pris 
oners,  the  conduct  of  wars,  in  every  field  of 
life,  we  are  becoming  more  and  more  civil 
ized  and  humane  and  human.  Who  shall  fix 
a  limit  to  this  advance?  Who  shall  say  that 
barbarism  ceases  at  this  point,  and  here 

82 


Delimitation   of   Non-Resistance 

the  race  must  cease  to  rise?  I  believe  that 
this  progress  will  be  eternal,  and  that  Garri 
son  in  insisting  that  all  use  of  force  among 
men  was  wrong,  was  truly  indicating  the 
proper  objective  of  human  progress.1 

1  A  sign  of  the  times  is  the  recent  book,  "Resist  not  Evil," 
by  the  well-known  lawyer  and  political  leader  of  Chicago, 
Clarence  S.  Darrow,  who  advocates  the  doctrine  in  its  extreme 
form  with  great  ability. 


CHAPTER  X 
GARRISON  AND  THE  CIVIL  WAR1 

And  behold,  the  Lord  passed  by,  and  a  great  and  strong  wind 
rent  the  mountains  and  brake  in  pieces  the  rocks  before  the 
Lord,  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  wind;  and  after  the  wind  an 
earthquake,  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  earthquake;  and  after 
the  earthquake  a  fire,  but  the  Lord  was  not  in  the  fire;  and  after 
the  fire  a  still  small  voice.— I  KINGS  xix:ii,  12. 

Garrison  is  not  known  as  a  non-resistant 
because  the  world  was  not  ready  for  non- 
resistance,  but  it  was  ready  for  Abolition, 
and  consequently  upon  his  labors  for  Aboli 
tion  his  fame  at  present  rests.  But  to  the 
young  agitator  of  the  thirties  one  cause  must 
have  seemed  as  hopeless  as  the  other— or 
rather  they  must  both  have  seemed  hopeless 
to  those  who  lacked  his  faith.  But  he  went 
on  his  way,  full  of  hope,  and  sowed  his  seed 
faithfully,  leaving  the  harvest  to  take  care  of 
itself.  And  he  had  the  rare  good  fortune  to 
reap  one  harvest,  at  any  rate,  during  his  life 
time.  He  might,  like  so  many  other  good  men, 
have  passed  his  life  in  urging  the  highest 
ethics  upon  a  generation  too  blind  to  see  the 

1  A  portion  of  this  chapter  appeared  originally  in  the  North 
American  Review,  and  is  reprinted  here  by  consent. 

84 


Garrison   and   the    Civil   War 

truth;  but  fortunately  he  found  a  particular 
cause,  completely  in  harmony  with  his  high 
est  conceptions,  and  yet  ripe  for  action.  With 
out  abating  a  tittle  of  his  beliefs,  he  threw 
himself  heart  and  soul  into  the  struggle  for 
emancipation. 

In  considering  that  struggle  we  are  brought 
face  to  face  at  once  with  the  anomaly  that 
the  cause  fathered  by  a  non-resistant  was  at 
last  achieved  by  the  greatest  war  of  history. 
Does  not  this  dispose  of  all  the  claims  of  the 
doctrine  of  abstention  from  violence?  Was 
not  non-resistance  impotent  until  men  who 
believed  in  bloodshed,  gun-powder  and  cold 
iron  came  to  its  assistance?  Is  not  physical 
force  the  true  remedy  for  such  evils  as  slavery 
after  all?  I  think  not.  Garrison  had  just  one 
thing  to  accomplish  and  that  was  to  make 
slavery  intolerable,  and  this  he  succeeded  in 
doing.  When  it  had  once  become  intolerable, 
it  was  doomed;  but  the  method  of  its  aboli 
tion  was  a  matter  of  choice  in  which  he  was 
overruled.  He  has  been  blamed  from  the 
standpoint  of  non-resistance  because  he  did 
not  continue  to  protest  against  the  war,  and 
did  not  dissociate  himself  more  distinctly 
from  its  methods.  It  has  been  urged 
against  him  that  when  a  young  friend  who 
had  obtained  a  commission  in  the  army  came 
to  bid  him  farewell  in  uniform,  Garrison 
slapped  him  on  the  back  and  wished  him 

8s 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

Godspeed  without  a  word  of  disapproval.  If 
there  was  any  inconsistency  in  this  behavior 
it  was  certainly  very  natural — very  human — 
and  he  must  be  indeed  a  very  rigid  moralist 
who  would  refuse  to  excuse  it.  We  all 
remember  the  story  of  the  lady  who,  under 
most  provoking  circumstances,  thanked  a 
neighbor  for  swearing  for  her,  and  if  Garri 
son  even  went  so  far  as  to  rejoice  over  the 
victories  of  an  army  committed  to  emancipa 
tion,  it  was  not  a  very  heinous  crime.  But 
his  general  course  during  these  difficult  days 
seems  to  me  absolutely  consistent  and  praise 
worthy.  His  defense,  which  we  have  already 
considered  in  another  chapter,  is  impreg 
nable.  He  was  living  among  people  who  did 
not  accept  his  standards  of  right  and  wrong. 
If  they  chose  to  fight  over  an  issue  which 
he  thought  should  be  settled  peaceably,  he 
could  not  but  hope  that  the  side  of  Abolition 
would  triumph. 

Was  war  the  best  method  of  abolishing 
slavery?  Was  it  a  moral  method?  Was  it 
the  most  efficient?  As  to  its  morality,  the 
North  is  practically  unanimous;  but,  then,  so 
too  is  the  South,  and  on  the  other  side! 
This  fact  ought  perhaps  to  disturb  our  con 
fidence.  Thousands  of  men  and  women  who 
disapprove  of  most  wars  would  make  an 
exception  of  this,  the  holy  war  par  excellence 
waged  for  the  liberation  of  an  enslaved 

86 


Garrison   and   the    Civil   War 

race.  But  has  not  the  South  an  equal  right 
to  judge  of  holiness?  It  is  and  was  much 
more  religious  and  orthodox  (as  those  words 
are  ordinarily  used)  than  the  North.  The 
leaders  of  the  Northern  hosts,  Lincoln, 
Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan  and  the  rest,  were 
not  "religious"  men,  and  their  connection 
with  churches  of  any  kind  was  usually  of 
the  most  formal  description;  while  Jefferson 
Davis,  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson  were  pil 
lars  of  the  church.  And  unprejudiced  foreign 
observers  often  took  the  side  of  the  South, 
too,  of  whom  Mr.  Gladstone  was  a  notable 
example.  Was  his  sympathy  with  the  South 
a  mistake?  That  depends,  I  think,  on  the 
character  of  the  motives  which  determined 
his  choice.  If  it  was  a  kindly  feeling  for  slavery 
that  influenced  him,  of  course  it  was  a  mistake. 
If  it  was  a  lurking  fondness  for  the  lazy,  useless 
life  of  the  Southern  aristocracy — for  the  life 
of  a  class  like  his  own,  whose  boast  it  was 
that  it  lived  on  the  labor  of  others — then,  too, 
it  was  a  mistake.  But  it  is  possible  to  take 
another  view  of  the  issue.  In  the  late  fifties 
and  early  sixties,  the  North  and  South  hated 
each  other  bitterly.  I  was  brought  up  in  the 
midst  of  that  hatred  and  partook  of  it;  and 
I  remember  suggesting,  as  a  small  boy,  when 
Jefferson  Davis  was  captured,  that  he  be  taken 
through  the  streets  of  our  cities  on  exhibition 
in  an  iron  cage.  Our  favorite  song  devoted  him 

87 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

to  death  by  hanging  on  a  sour-apple  tree. 
As  for  the  Southerners,  they  could  find  no 
words  vile  enough  to  describe  their  fellow 
citizens  of  the  North,  "Northern  scum"  being 
one  of  the  commonest  and  most  polite. 

Here,  then,  is  the  ethical  proposition :  We 
have  two  neighbors  living  in  partnership 
and  hating  each  other  with  a  deadly  hatred, 
and  one  of  them  desires  to  separate  peaceably 
from  the  other.  There  was  no  practical  dif 
ficulty  in  the  way  of  making  a  division,  for 
the  cleavage  ran  along  geographical  lines, 
and  any  Master-in-Chancery  would  have 
been  obliged  to  report  that  an  actual  parti 
tion  was  perfectly  feasible.  Given  this  state 
of  affairs,  was  it  morally  justifiable  for  the 
stronger  partner  to  hold  the  other  to  his  side 
by  force?  This  is  no  Constitutional  question, 
for  it  rises  far  above  the  plane  of  seals  and 
parchment.  Indeed,  nothing  obscures  moral 
investigations  so  much  as  the  dragging  in  by 
the  heels  of  artificial  and  unnatural  considera 
tions.  The  simple  issue  was:  Is  it  right  to 
hold  haters  together  by  force?  If  Mr.  Glad 
stone  decided  this  question  in  the  negative,  I, 
for  one,  do  not  see  how  he  could  reasonably 
have  done  otherwise. 

What  was  the  psychological  condition  of 
the  Northern  mind,  that  the  preference 
should  be  given  to  it?  It  was  filled  with 
hatred,  as  we  have  seen;  and,  where  it  did 

88 


Garrison   and   the    Civil   War 

not  hate,  it  was  still  bent  upon  having  its 
own  way.  If  we  except  an  inconsiderable 
number  of  Abolitionists,  the  question  of 
slavery  did  not  affect  the  attitude  of  the 
North.  It  was  only  the  South  that  was  pre 
occupied  with  slavery.  President  Lincoln 
said,  as  we  have  seen,  that  the  war  was  under 
taken  for  the  sole  purpose  of  preserving  the 
Union,  and  that  he  would  preserve  it,  either 
free  or  slave,  or  part  free  and  part  slave.  He 
called  out  the  troops  to  maintain  the  Union, 
and  not  to  abolish  slavery.  The  slaves  were 
finally  freed,  as  a  war  measure,  to  assist  the 
armies  in  the  field.  The  war  was  not  de 
signed  to  help  emancipation,  but  emancipa 
tion  to  help  the  war.  And  what  was  this 
"Union"  for  which  so  many  lives  were  sac 
rificed  and  in  honor  of  which  so  much  poetry 
was  written?  In  the  last  analysis  it  was  the 
forcible  binding  together  of  mutual  haters, 
and  its  idealization  was  a  curious  example  of 
fetish-worship.  Apart  from  sentiment,  the 
practical  element  in  the  Union  spirit  was  the 
desire  to  preserve  the  size  of  the  country; 
it  was  devotion  to  the  idea  of  bigness,  and 
the  belief  that  bigness  is  a  matter  of  latitude 
and  longitude — the  same  spirit  which  pre 
vailed  in  the  Mexican  and  Philippine  wars — 
in  other  words,  the  spirit  of  imperialism.  It 
is  impossible  of  course  to  extract  any  moral 
essence  from  a  mere  matter  of  geographical 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

extension,  and  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  point 
out  that  the  highest  civilizations  of  the  past, 
those  of  Athens  and  Jerusalem  and  Florence, 
were  restricted  to  narrow  areas. 

If  the  morality  of  the  Northern  policy  in 
the  Civil  War  was  questionable,  its  worldly 
wisdom  was  even  more  so.  What  would 
have  been  likely  to  happen  if  the  South  had 
been  allowed  to  secede  peacefully  and  with 
the  good  wishes  of  her  late  partner?  That 
the  Confederacy  would  have  suffered  from  its 
new  commercial  isolation  cannot  be  doubted ; 
and  that  the  States  of  the  Confederation 
would  have  quarreled  is  almost  equally  cer 
tain,  for  hard  times  make  hard  tempers.  It 
is  easy  to  predict,  then,  that  a  nation  built 
upon  the  principle  of  free  secession  would 
not  have  remained  long  intact.  It  is  very 
clear,  too,  that  slavery  could  not  have  lasted 
long  along  the  Northern  border;  for  even 
before  the  war,  with  the  fugitive-slave  law  in 
full  operation,  a  continual  stream  of  escaping 
slaves  found  its  way  across  the  intervening 
States  to  Canada.  If  nothing  but  an  ordinary 
boundary  line  had  separated  the  slave  States 
from  free  soil,  a  general  exodus  of  slaves 
would  have  begun,  and  ere  long  the  border 
States  would  of  necessity  have  ceased  to  be 
slave  States.  With  slavery  extinct,  the  reason 
for  their  separation  from  the  North  would 
have  ceased,  and  their  commercial  interests 

90 


Garrison   and   the    Civil   War 

would  have  demanded  reunion  with  the 
United  States,  while  the  kindly  action  of  the 
North  in  permitting  them  to  secede  without 
interference  would  have  left  no  hostile  feel 
ings  in  their  minds  to  prevent  such  a  reunion. 
With  the  border  States  once  annexed,  a  new 
boundary  would  have  been  created  along 
their  Southern  frontier,  and  here  again  his 
tory  would  repeat  itself,  until  the  nation  was 
again  one.  I  do  not  think  that  such  an  out 
come  of  Secession  is  fanciful,  and  its  realiza 
tion  would  have  been  hastened  by  the  grow 
ing  impatience  of  the  civilized  world  with 
the  continuance  of  chattel-slavery. 

Against  this  natural  evolution  of  the  race- 
difficulty  what  have  we  actually  to  set?  Slav 
ery  was,  indeed,  abolished ;  but  it  is  altogether 
impossible  to  sum  up  the  evils  which  we  have 
entailed  upon  ourselves  by  the  manner  of 
its  abolition.  First  of  all,  we  have  the  loss 
of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives,  and  all 
the  grief  and  suffering  consequent  upon  that 
loss.  It  is  a  common  remark  that  the  wars 
of  Napoleon  permanently  injured  the  phy 
sique  of  the  French  people  by  killing  off  the 
strongest  men.  Is  it  not  likely  that  we  have 
suffered  to  some  extent  in  the  same  way? 
Then,  how  much  money  did  the  war  cost? 
And  how  much  more  wisely  it  might  have 
been  expended!  Furthermore,  consider  our 
disgraceful  annual  pension  bill,  which,  larger 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

than  the  cost  of  any  European  standing  army, 
is,  I  believe,  actually  increasing,  and  which 
seems  to  have  transformed  the  brave  hosts 
of  the  North  into  an  army  of  mendicants! 
And  into  that  mendicancy  who  shall  say 
how  much  fraud  has  entered?  Indeed,  the 
moral  effects  of  the  war  were  its  worst  effects. 
Is  there  a  tavern  at  any  cross-roads,  North  or 
South,  without  its  venerable  toper  whose 
habits  were  corrupted  by  the  war?  And 
where  one  has  survived,  how  many  have  died 
of  intemperance  of  all  kinds,  and  of  loath 
some  diseases  which  the  war  generated,  fos 
tered  and  spread  down  to  this  very  day?  All 
the  flags  with  which  we  decorate  their  graves 
on  Memorial  Day  cannot  conceal  the  truth. 
I  have  seen  it  stated  that  discharged  soldiers 
founded  our  army  of  tramps,  a  name  which 
has  come  into  use  in  my  time.  Do  not  think 
that  these  are  the  imaginations  of  a  fanatic 
who  sees  in  history  only  that  which  he  looks 
for.  In  the  Century  Magazine  for  November, 
1903,  is  an  article  on  "The  Present  Epidemic 
of  Crime,"  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  M. 
Buckley,  one  of  the  best-known  clergymen 
in  the  country.  At  the  very  head  of  the 
causes  of  this  "epidemic"  he  places  the  great 
war.  "Among  the  influences  which  have 
powerfully  affected  the  primary  causes  of 
crime,  and  are  sources  of  this  present  epi 
demic,  is  the  effect  of  the  Civil  War.  .  .  . 

92 


Garrison   and   the    Civil   War 

The  evil  done  by  that  war  to  public  and  pri 
vate  morality  was  almost  irremediable.  Its 
effects  were  seen  upon  Congress,  upon  poli 
tics,  upon  reconstruction,  upon  business,  upon 
society,  and  upon  the  habits  of  the  people." 

One  of  the  worst  results  of  the  Civil  War 
was  the  resuscitation  of  the  spirit  of  war  and 
imperialism.  Is  it  a  wonder  that  children 
brought  up  in  an  atmosphere  of  hate  and 
bloodshed  should  have  had  the  spirit  of  hate 
and  bloodshed  infused  into  their  hearts?  The 
seed  sown  then  duly  bore  its  crop,  and  the 
battle-cry,  "Remember  the  Maine!"  (a  vessel 
which  all  the  world  but  America  believes  to 
have  been  destroyed  by  accident)  was  the 
direct  offspring  of  "The  Union  Forever !"  The 
Cuban  War,  waged  for  the  independence  of 
Cuba  (which  could  have  been  obtained, 
according  to  our  Secretary  of  State  and  our 
Minister  to  Spain,  without  a  shot),  and  the 
Philippine  War,  waged  for  the  purpose  of 
depriving  a  brave  people  of  their  freedom, 
are  the  legitimate  twin  offspring  of  the  Civil 
War,  which  in  their  turn  may  have  their 
accursed  progeny  a  generation  hence. 

The  speculation  caused  by  the  interruption 
of  commerce  and  the  derangement  of  the 
currency  during  our  war  laid  the  foundations 
of  the  new  plutocracy.  Money  was  needed 
to  pay  the  enormous  expenses  of  destruction, 
and  the  tariff  began  to  grow,  and  behind  it 

93 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

monopoly    ensconced    itself.      With  the    new 
tramp    came   the   new   multi-millionaire,    and 
caste,    luxury,  pauperism  and  labor    troubles 
in  their  train.     It  would  be  possible  to  write 
a  long  and  plausible  book,  tracing  the  origin 
of  almost  all  the  pressing  evils  of  the  day 
to  the  Civil  War.     Was   the   forcing   of   the 
issue  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  a  few  years 
before  its  time  worth  while  at  such  a  cost? 
Garrison  was  right.    The  war  was  a  mistake. 
This  brings  us  to  the  sad  fact  that  the  war 
did  not  settle  the  race  question,  but  merely 
aggravated     it.      Slavery    was     wrong     and 
should  have  come  to  an  end,  but  we  ended  it 
in  the  wrong  way.    The  real  trouble  with  the 
South  at  present  is  that  the  question  of  sla 
very  was  settled   over   the   heads   of   the   in 
habitants  by  a  hostile  and  hated  power.     No 
people  could   at   heart   accept  such   a   settle 
ment  with  good  grace,  and  it  is  not  to  be 
expected  of  human  nature.    We  stabbed  the 
South  to  the  quick,  and  during  all  the  years 
of    reconstruction    turned  the    dagger    round 
in  the   festering  wound.     The   spirit   of  war 
and  imperialism  has  never  yet  properly  set 
tled  any  question,  except  the  question  as  to 
which   side  is   the   stronger;   and   now,   after 
forty  years,  we  are  beginning  to  learn  that  the 
Negro    has    yet  to    be    emancipated.     If   the 
South  had  been  permitted  to  secede,  slavery 
would  have  died  a  natural  death,  the  South- 

94 


Garrisoru  and  the    Civil   War 

erners  would  have  felt  that  they  had  con 
sented  to  its  demise,  and  they  would  have 
accepted  the  new  order  with  that  attitude 
of  acquiescence  which  is  necessary  to  the 
success  of  any  social  experiment.  We  have 
still  at  this  late  day  to  learn  the  ancient  lesson 
of  Buddha:  "Hatred  does  not  cease  by  ha 
tred  at  any  time;  hatred  ceases  by  love;  this 
is  an  old  rule." 

The  wisest  thing  that  was  said  by  any 
Northerner  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  was 
the  saying  usually  ascribed  to  Horace  Gree- 
ley :  "Let  the  erring  sisters  go."  Mr.  Whitelaw 
Reid  has  loyally  endeavored  to  defend  his  for 
mer  chief  from  this  ascription,  and  he  declares 
that  Mr.  Greeley  never  used  the  words.  If 
Mr.  Reid  is  speaking  solely  in  the  interests 
of  historical  accuracy,  well  and  good;  but  if 
he  is  stretching  a  point  to  save  his  friend, 
he  is  doing  him  a  doubtful  service,  for  the  final 
historian  of  the  Civil  War  will  have  to  record 
that  these  were  the  words,  and  the  only 
words,  of  wisdom.  And  this  was  substan 
tially  the  advice  which  Garrison  gave. 

In  an  article  in  the  North  American  Review 
I  took  the  position  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
right  in  sympathizing  with  the  South,  and  I 
was  much  gratified  afterwards  to  receive  a 
letter  from  an  English  ex-official  who  was 
close  to  Mr.  Gladstone  and  familiar  with  his 
opinions,  in  which  letter  he  assured  me  that 

95 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

my  explanation  of  the  British  statesman's 
position  was  correct.  His  communication 
ran  in  part  as  follows: 

But  what  was  his  real  reason  for  sym 
pathizing  with  the  South?  I  am  quite  sure 
that  it  was  not  sympathy  with  the  Southern 
"aristocracy" — which  undoubtedly,  however, 
had  a  great  effect  in  bringing  over  the  mass 
of  upper-class  opinion  to  that  side.  I  do 
not  believe  it  was  his  father's  slave-owning 
connection  (although  that  influenced  some 
of  his  early  speeches  during  the  time  he 
was  still  a  Tory),  for  he  had  long  since 
shaken  himself  free  from  those  ideas.  I 
firmly  believe  it  was,  as  he  viewed  it,  his 
love  of  liberty,  his  hatred  and  distrust  of 
any  policy  of  keeping  any  body  of  men  in 
a  political  connection  against  their  will. 
This  he  regarded  as  bad  for  the  community 
which  included  an  unwilling  element  in  its 
midst,  because  it  was  an  element  of  weak 
ness  and  not  of  strength;  just  as  a  regi 
ment  wherein  one-fifth  of  the  men  hate 
their  officers  or  want  to  desert  will  not 
fight  as  well  as  a  regiment  "at  union  with 
itself."  He  further  regarded  it  as  bad  for 
the  element  unwillingly  included,  because, 
being  deprived  of  liberty,  they  were  apt  to 
direct  all  their  energies  to  a  struggle  to  be 
free,  instead  of  along  the  natural  lines  of 
free  and  peaceful  development  and  progress. 
This  was  at  the  root  of  his  later  Eastern 
policy,  of  his  sympathy  with  Italy,  and  of 
his  Irish  policy,  and  also  of  his  policy  of 

96 


Garrison   and   the    Civil   War 

union  with  the  Colonies  by  the  silken  ties 
of  sentiment  and  the  elastic  bonds  of  free 
dom,  rather  than  by  any  forced  and  formal 
connection  or  by  any  cast-iron  scheme  of 
supposed  material  interests. 

Such  were  Mr.  Gladstone's  views,  and  such 
also  were  Garrison's.  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  final  judgment  of  posterity  will  be  favor 
able  to  the  course  of  the  North  in  the  Civil 
War,  any  more  than  it  will  be  favorable  to 
the  policy  of  coercion  in  Ireland.  It  requires 
delicate  instruments  to  cure  national  diseases, 
and  we  took  the  sledge-hammer  as  ours.  It 
may  be  high  treason  to  say  so,  but  I  think 
that  the  statesmanship  of  Gladstone — and  of 
Garrison — was  sounder  than  that  of  Lincoln.  A 

There  is  a  class  of  critics  which  denies  the 
importance  of  Garrison's  services  to  the  coun 
try    on  the    ground    that    all    idealists    and 
reformers   are  mere  empty   voices,    and   that  j 
none  but  economic  causes  affect  the  condition 
of  men.    The  world,  according  to  these  phil-   I 
osophers,  crawls  upon  its  belly,  and  its  brain  > 
and   heart  follow  submissively  wherever  the  • 
belly  leads.    This  is  known  as  the  "economic  • 
interpretation  of  history,"  and  is  particularly  v 
affected    by  Marxian    socialists,  who   believe   • 
that  state  socialism  is  destined  to  be  estab 
lished  by  irresistible  economic  laws,  and  that 
their   own  idealism   and    agitation    are    alto- 

97 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

gether  fruitless;  which  does  not  prevent 
them,  however,  from  laboring  and  sacrificing 
themselves  for  the  cause,  like  the  typical 
idealist.  This  belief  and  this  behavior  is 
strangely  like  the  Christian  doctrine  of  pre 
destination,  the  certain  triumph  of  the 
church,  and  the  fore-ordained  election  of  the 
saints,  which  has  never  interfered  with  the 
missionary  activity  of  believers.  The  disciple 
of  Marx  comforts  himself  with  the  materialist 
equivalent  of  the  statement  that  all  things 
work  together  for  good,  and  his  dogmatism 
is  as  strict  as  that  of  any  Presbyterian  sect. 
It  is  the  old  issue  of  fatalism  and  free  will, 
the  fatalist  usually  exerting  himself  to  secure 
his  ends  much  more  strenuously  than  his 
adversary. 

The  most  complete  application  of  this  the 
ory  of  economic  causes  to  the  subject  of 
slavery  has  been  made  by  an  acute  socialist 
thinker,  Mr.  A.  M.  Simons,  in  a  series  of 
articles  in  the  International  Socialist  Review 
of  Chicago  during  the  year  1903.  According 
to  him  the  idealism  of  Garrison  and  the 
Abolitionists — the  growing  belief  in  the 
immorality  of  slavery  and  the  justice  of  the 
demand  for  freedom,  John  Brown  and  his 
raid,  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  the  battle  songs 
of  the  North — all  these  things  were  phantas- 


98 


Garrison   and   the   Civil   War 

magoria  and  the  people  were  deceiving  them 
selves. 

The  real  conflict  was  .  .  .  between 
the  capital  that  hired  free  labor  and  the  cap 
ital  that  owned  slave  labor.1 

And  Mr.  Simons  represents  the  Northern 
capitalists  in  the  anticipation  of  a  future 
struggle  between  themselves  and  their 
employes,  as  deliberately  determining  that  the 
capitalists  of  the  South  should  not  enjoy  the 
"privilege  of  an  undisturbed  industry."  It 
seems  to  me  that  anyone  who  can  believe 
this  can  believe  anything  that  he  wishes  to. 
The  fact  is  that  slave  labor  did  not  compete 
with  the  free  labor  of  the  North.  The  South 
had  a  practical  monopoly  of  the  production 
of  cotton,  tobacco,  rice  and  sugar,  and  slavery 
was  chiefly  confined  to  that  production.  The 
relative  cheapness  or  dearness  of  slave  labor 
had  consequently  no  appreciable  effect  on 
Northern  labor ;  and  if  it  had,  it  is  absurd  to 
suppose  that  Northern  capital  appreciated 
the  fact  or  brought  about  the  war  for  any 
such  reason.  It  is  true  that  the  North 
desired  a  protective  tariff  for  its  manufactures, 
and  that  the  South  preferred  free  trade  so 
that  it  might  have  a  world-wide  market  for 
its  cotton.  It  is  true  that  North  and  South 
each  desired  to  control  the  national  govern- 

1  Quoted  by  Mr.  Simons  from  a  former  work  by  Benjamin  E. 
Green. 

99 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

ment.    But  no  war  would  have  been  fought 

if    the    South  had    not    seceded;  the    South 

would    not    have    seceded     unless     she     had 

I   feared  for  the  future  of  slavery;  and  slavery 

'   would  not  have  been  menaced  except  for  the 

i    agitation    of    the    anti-slavery   people    of  the 

North  with  Garrison  at  their  head. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  human  idealism  enters 
into  all  the  works  of  man;  and  the  philoso 
phy  which  asserts  that  poetry  and  religion 
spring  from  economic  conditions  and  nothing 
else,  is  erroneous  or  at  least  one-sided.  That 
mind  and  body  are  so  intermingled  that  they 
react  upon  each  other  is  undoubtedly  true, 
and  our  extreme  idealists  need  to  be  reminded 
now  and  then  that  the  bread  and  butter  factor 
must  not  be  forgotten ;  but  to  assert  that  mind 
is  made  of  bread  and  butter  is  going  much  too 
far,  and  it  ignores  the  commonest  experiences 
of  human  consciousness.  Man's  wish — man's 
will — is  a  force  to  be  dealt  with.  Even  ordi 
nary  hunger  involves  wish  and  will  in  the 
choice  of  food.  Is  our  present  civilization 
governed  partially  by  the  yield  of  wheat? 
But  wheat  itself  is  a  human  creation.  The 
first  man  who  tasted  a  grain  of  wild  wheat 
and  liked  it  and  proceeded  to  sow  other  simi 
lar  grains  was  moved  as  much  by  fancy  as 
by  economic  necessity.  And  there  is  hunger 
and  hunger.  There  is  a  hunger  and  thirst 
for  knowledge,  and  a  hunger  and  thirst  after 

100 


Garrison   a-ntf   the   CivJ;K 


righteousness,  and  many  other  hungers  and 
thirsts  which  must  all  be  reckoned  with  in 
the  study  of  evolution.  And  man  can  see 
the  workings  of  this  side  of  evolution  in  his 
own  mind.  I  have  become  a  vegetarian,  for 
instance,  and  I  am  unable  to  detect  any  eco 
nomic  reason  for  my  change  of  diet.  I  know 
many  others  of  whom  the  same  is  true.  In 
time  the  increase  in  the  number  of  such  vege 
tarians  will  produce  an  appreciable  effect  upon 
the  economic  condition  of  mankind,  and  here 
clearly  will  be  a  change  occasioned  in  large 
part  by  pure  idealism.  The  same  is  true  of 
socialism,  and  I  know  many  leading  socialists 
who,  so  far  from  having  been  impelled  to 
socialism  by  economic  motives,  would  be  eco 
nomic  losers  by  its  victory.  And  so  with  the 
temperance  movement,  the  peace  movement, 
the  movement  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to 
animals,  and  many  others.  I  am  conscious 
and  every  man  is  conscious,  of  doing  things 
every  day  against  mere  economic  interests, 
and  I  do  not  refer  exclusively  to  philanthropy 
by  any  means.  The  millionaire  who  spends 
his  money  on  a  trip  to  Europe  instead  of 
saving  it  overrules  his  economic  interests  on 
account  of  his  higher  desire  for  novel  expe 
riences,  and  he  does  the  same  thing  when 
he  pays  for  a  superfluous  ornament  on  his 
house.  To  overlook  men's  desires  is  to  over 
look  life  itself,  and  in  the  record  of  the  living 

101 


'Non-Resistant 

actions  of  men  the  thought  precedes  the 
thing.  You  cannot  have  a  dinner  without 
thinking  it  out  beforehand,  nor  build  a  house 
without  plans.  You  might  wait  till  dooms 
day  for  "economic  conditions"  to  roast  a 
potato  for  you.  The  will  of  man  must  inter 
vene  before  the  miracle  is  performed,  and 
sometimes  he  wills  to  rise  above  his  economic 
conditions  and  refuses  to  bend  before  them. 
In  short,  the  "economic  interpretation  of  his 
tory"  is  equivalent  to  the  brick  interpretation 
of  a  house  (leaving  the  architect  and  the 
owner  who  ordered  it  built  out  of  the  ques 
tion) — that  is,  no  interpretation  at  all. 
Economic  conditions  are  more  often  the  limi 
tation  than  the  source  of  evolution.  The  exer 
tion  of  our  powers  is  more  or  less  bounded 
by  our  materials,  and  events  which  are  not 
economically  possible  are  not  likely  to  hap 
pen  ;  but  things  are  not  yet  in  the  saddle  and 
the  socialist  movement,  with  its  devoted  and 
self-forgetful  leaders,  gives  ample  proof  of  it. 
It  is  curious  to  note  that  our  extreme  mate 
rialists  call  themselves  "scientific  socialists," 
and  our  extreme  idealists,  who  deny  the  exist 
ence  of  matter,  take  the  name  of  "Christian 
scientists."  True  "science"  lies  between  these 
extremes,  and  perhaps  it  is  wise  to  fight  shy 
of  those  who  advertise  their  "science"  too 
conspicuously. 

In   the  history   of   slavery   the   element  of 

102 


Garrison   and   the   Civil   War 

human  will  and  initiative  is  particularly 
prominent.  A  sentimental  bishop  was  the 
first  to  suggest  the  importation  of  Africans 
to  America  in  order  to  relieve  the  Indians 
from  the  labor  which  their  spirit  could  not 
brook.  It  was  a  philanthropic  business  at  the 
start.  Indians  would  not  work,  Negroes 
would.  Here  again  the  human  factor  asserted 
itself.  The  cavalier  immigrants  of  the  South 
did  not  like  to  work,  the  Puritans  of  the 
North  did ;  hence  one  of  the  reasons  that  slav 
ery  flourished  only  below  Mason  and  Dixon's 
line.  Mr.  Simons  refers  to  this  fact  as  "one 
of  those  strange  happenings"  called  "coinci 
dences"!  "The  interesting  point  lies,"  he 
goes  on  to  say,  "in  the  fact  that  in  Europe  it 
was  just  the  cavalier  who  represented  the  old 
feudal  organization  of  society  with  its  servile 
system  of  labor,  while  the  Puritan  is  the 
representative  of  the  rapidly  rising  bourgeoisie 
which  was  to  rest  upon  the  status  of  wage- 
slavery."  "Strange  happening,"  "coincidence," 
"interesting  point"!  This  is  certainly  most 
naive.  There  was  no  reason  why  slaves  should 
not  be  employed  in  the  North  in  raising  wheat 
as  well  as  in  the  South  in  raising  cotton,  except 
that  the  Northerners  did  not  want  them,  and 
heredity  as  well  as  climate  goes  to  account 
for  tfie  difference.  Mr.  Simons  himself  quotes 
from  the  work  of  an  ante-bellum  author  a 
reference  to  German  settlers  who,  "true  to 

103 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

their  national  instincts,  will  not  employ  the 
labor  of  a  slave."  And  in  fine,  as  if  to  show 
how  little  he  is  convinced  by  his  own  argu 
ments,  Mr.  Simons  says  of  this  same  volume 
(Helper's  "Impending  Crisis"),  "This  book 
had  a  most  remarkable  circulation  in  the 
years  immediately  preceding  the  war,  and 
probably  if  the  truth  as  to  the  real  factors 
which  made  public  opinion  could  be  deter 
mined,  it  had  far  more  to  do  with  bringing 
on  the  Civil  War  than  did  'Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin'  " — which  involves  an  admission  as  to 
the  latter  book  as  well  as  to  the  former. 
Books  and  arguments  and  ideals  had  their 
leading  part  to  play  in  the  abolition  of  slav 
ery,  and  the  very  adversaries  of  the  belief 
cannot  get  away  from  it.  "Public  opinion"  is 
and  always  has  been  a  determining  element 
in  history,  and  it  is  swayed  by  novels  and 
agitators  and  poets.  Garrison  still  has  his 
place  in  history. 

Another  class  of  critic  minimizes  the  work 
of  the  Abolitionists  upon  the  ground  that  they 
did  more  harm  than  good,  and  that  slavery 
would  have  been  abolished  much  more  easily 
without  them.  To  refute  this  argument  we 
must  appeal  to  the  entire  history  of  the  times, 
which  has  been  so  briefly  summarized  in 
these  pages.  We  cannot  read  it  impartially 
without  being  conscious  throughout  of  the 
constant  presence,  behind  statesmen  and  poli- 

104 


Garrison  and  the   Civil   War 

tician,  behind  orator  and  editor,  of  the  goad  t 
of  the  Abolitionist.  In  the  troubled  waters  of 
controversy  his  was  ever  the  stirring  power. 
He  was  not  a  fly  on  the  wheel,  but  steam  in 
the  engine.  And  we  can  call  the  best  of  all 
witnesses  in  confirmation  of  this  fact.  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  a  few  days  before  his  assassina 
tion,  when  congratulated  by  Mr.  Chamberlain, 
afterwards  governor  of  South  Carolina,  upon 
having  freed  the  slaves,  answered,  "I  have 
been  only  an  instrument.  The  logic  and 
moral  power  of  Garrison  and  the  anti-slavery 
people  of  the  country,  and  the  army,  have 
done  all." 


105 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  RESULTS  OF  THE  WAR  IN  THE 
SOUTH 

For  what  can  war  but  endless  war  still  breed  ? 

—MILTON. 

We  have  considered  some  of  the  general 
effects  of  the  Civil  War  upon  the  country — 
effects  which  would  have  been  avoided  if 
Garrison's  peaceful  counsels  had  prevailed; 
but  many  of  these  evils  have  been  especially 
concentrated  in  the  South.  This  is  not  the 
fault  of  the  Southerner,  for  with  the  possible 
exception  of  his  lesser  fondness  for  manual 
labor,  he  differs  in  no  essential  respect  from 
other  men  of  Anglo-Saxon  descent,  and  so 
far  as  the  race  question  is  concerned,  the 
Northerner  who  settles  in  the  South  is  usu 
ally  the  less  considerate  of  the  two.  But  the 
war  absorbed  the  entire  South.  Every  man 
and  boy  took  part  in  it.  It  devastated  the 
home,  and  where  it  did  not  devastate  it 
impoverished.  War  cwa.s  hell  in  Georgia, 
where  General  Sherman  learned  its  character 
after  having  created  it ;  and  not  a  mere  matter 
of  the  morning  newspaper,  as  it  was  in  many 

106 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

a  Northern  household.  It  was  a  matter  of 
necessity  that  its  damning  effects  should  be 
greatest  in  the  States  of  the  Confederacy.  If 
it  is  true  that  a  large  crop  of  military  schools 
sprang  up  in  the  North,  and  that  much  was 
done  to  infect  the  minds  of  the  young  with 
the  ideals  of  militarism,  in  the  South  every 
lad  inherited  by  his  birthright  the  title  of 
major  or  captain.  I  have  my  own  impres 
sions  of  a  recent  journey  in  the  South  which 
revealed  to  me  the  unfortunate  results  of 
choosing  war  as  an  antidote  for  slavery,  and 
perhaps  I  may  be  pardoned  for  devoting  a 
chapter  to  my  recollections,  believing  that 
they  substantiate  Garrison's  position  that 
gunpowder  should  have  no  place  in  the  social 
pharmacopeia.  And  first,  then,  to  show  that 
the  race  question  is  farther  from  settlement 
than  ever. 

I  put  up  one  afternoon  for  a  few  hours  at 
a  tiny  hotel  in  a  remote  village,  and  a  room 
was  assigned  to  me  which  had  been  vacated 
in  haste  for  my  benefit  by  some  more  perma 
nent  resident.  It  bore  all  the  marks  of  a 
sitting-room  as  well  as  a  bedroom,  and  on 
the  table  were  lying,  one  on  the  other,  a 
couple  of  books  which  had  evidently  been 
recently  laid  aside,  and  each  of  them  con 
tained  a  book-mark.  The  under  volume  was 
a  large  Bagster  Bible;  the  upper  was  a  big 
book  bearing  on  its  upturned  cover  the  exag- 

107 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

gerated  face  of  a  negro  in  gilt,  made  to  look 
as  much  like  an  ape  as  possible,  with  the 
title  in  gilt  letters  above  and  below  it,  "The 
Negro  a  Beast,  Or  In  the  Image  of  God." 
Two  Negro  servants  were  coming  in  and  out 
of  the  room,  making  the  fire  and  preparing 
for  my  comfort,  and  I  could  not  but  wonder 
at  the  strange  lack  of  delicacy  of  the  Bible 
reader  who  had  left  this  hideous  volume  to 
stare  them  in  the  face,  and  this,  too,  in  the 
chivalrous  South!  I  picked  up  the  book  in 
curiosity  after  the  servants  had  left.  The 
title  page  was  adorned  by  a  series  of  sub 
titles,  of  which  I  copied  one  as  a  sample.  It 
read  as  follows:  "The  Negro  a  Beast,  But 
Created  With  Articulate  Speech  and  Hands, 
That  He  May  Be  of  Service  to  His  Master, 
the  White  Man."  Here  was  indeed  a  rich 
relic  of  the  ancient  South  of  slavery,  a  South 
that  has  passed  away  forever!  I  looked 
down  at  the  date  and  rubbed  my  eyes  in 
astonishment.  There  must  be  some  mistake. 
The  book  was  printed  in  the  year  of  Our 
Lord  1900!  And  in  one  of  the  greatest  cities 
of  the  South,  too !  And  what  do  you  suppose 
is  the  name  of  the  publishing  company  which 
issues  this  precious  work?  It  is  called  the 
"American  Book  and  Bible  House !"  I  turned 
over  the  pages  of  the  book.  It  was  an 
illiterate  medley  of  folly  and  superstition — an 
attempt  to  prove  by  Scripture  that  the  Negro 

1 08 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

was  not  the  descendant  of  Ham,  and  to  show 
that  the  serpent  in  the  garden  of  Eden  was 
a  black  man !  It  was  just  such  a  book  as,  if 
it  had  been  produced  by  a  Negro,  would 
almost  have  justified  despair  for  his  race.  It 
is  not  remarkable  perhaps  that  a  single 
lunatic  should  have  written  such  a  book,  but 
that  a  publisher  should  have  been  found  for 
it,  that  commercial  success  should  have  been 
expected  from  it,  that  people  should  buy  it 
and  lay  it  on  their  Bibles  and  leave  it  on 
their  tables  to  insult  the  black  men  who  saw 
it,  and  astound  the  white — all  this  was  in 
credible. 

It  so  happened  that  I  was  reading  a  book 
written  by  a  Negro  at  the  same  time,  and  I 
took  it  from  my  portmanteau  and  laid  it 
beside  the  other  volume.  My  book  was 
Booker  Washington's  "Up  from  Slavery,"  a 
book  which  I  had  some  difficulty  in  getting 
in  a  great  Southern  city,  and  which  proved 
conclusively  that  its  author  was  one  of  the 
best  and  ablest  men  in  this  country,  black  or 
white ;  and  it  made  me  blush  for  my  white 
race  as  I  thought  of  these  two  authors 
together. 

And  shortly  afterwards  I  read  a  third  book, 
which  occupies  the  middle  ground  between 
these  two,  but  which  unfortunately  resembles 
the  white  man's  folly  more  than  the  black 
man's  wisdom.  It  is  "The  Leopard's  Spots," 

109 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Dixon,  a  shining  light 
in  the  Southern  Baptist  Church ;  and  it  tempts 
me  to  retort,  ''Thou  tiger,  first  wash  the 
stripes  out  of  thine  own  hide,  and  then  shalt 
thou  see  clearly  to  wash  out  the  spots  out  of 
thy  brother's  hide,"  for  it  is  in  the  spirit  of 
the  tiger  rather  than  in  that  of  the 
Christian  minister  that  Mr.  Dixon  treats  the 
delicate  issues  of  the  race  question  which  is 
the  subject  of  his  novel.  The  point  which  he 
seeks  to  make  is  that  the  Negro  must  be 
kept  by  force,  if  necessary,  in  the  place  of  an 
inferior,  and  that  he  should  not  be  educated 
above  it.  Again  and  again  he  reiterates  the 
statement  which  I  give  in  his  own  words, 
for  it  seems  to  me  to  be  lacking  in  clearness 
to  say  the  least,  that  "in  a  democracy  you  can 
not  build  a  nation  inside  of  a  nation  of  two 
antagonistic  races,  and  therefore  the  future 
American  must  be  either  an  Anglo-Saxon  or 
a  mulatto."  This  mixing  up  of  the  marriage 
relation  with  other  social  relations  runs 
through  the  whole  book,  and  it  seems  to  me 
to  be  illogical.  I  have  dined  on  a  social  equal 
ity  with  thousands  of  white  women  whom  it 
would  have  been  repugnant  to  me  to  marry. 
I  fail  to  see  that  the  one  idea  involves  the 
other.  I  believe  it  is  natural  and  best  that  peo 
ple  should  intermarry  within  their  own  race. 
We  received  Li  Hung  Chang  with  complete 
social  equality,  and  yet  most  of  us  would  not 

no 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

be  willing  to  marry  his  daughter,  and  proba 
bly  he  fully  reciprocated  the  feeling.  In  the 
absence  of  all  inherited  artificial  feeling  and 
tradition,  I  should  think  that  a  Negro  would 
prefer  to  marry  one  of  his  own  color.  The 
wrens  and  orioles  are  now  singing  out  of  my 
window.  They  do  not  intermarry,  but  I  do 
not  see  why  that  should  prevent  them  from 
treating  each  other  with  entire  courtesy  up 
to  the  point  of  social  equality.  The  danger 
of  a  nation  of  mulattos,  if  it  is  a  danger,  does 
not  lie  in  the  direction  of  intermarriage,  as 
we  all  know,  but  of  the  illicit  intercourse 
which  has  already  produced  millions  of  them, 
and  which  shows  how  far  the  white  man  can 
overcome  his  distaste  for  the  Negro.  Flout 
the  fact  as  we  may,  a  large  part  of  the  col 
ored  population  of  the  South  are  our  own 
cousins. 

The  matter  of  the  "usual  crime"  committed 
by  Negroes  is  a  frightful  one  and  it  will  have 
to  be  faced,  but  it  is  very  clear  that  it  has 
not  been  faced  in  the  right  way.  Lynchings, 
burnings  at  the  stake — and  Mr.  Dixon  depicts 
one  for  us — have  failed  to  decrease  the  num 
ber  of  them.  And  let  us  remember  that 
every  civilized  nation  contains  solitary  brutes 
who  assault  and  murder  women,  but  that 
only  white  Americans  still  burn  at  the  stake 
— and  that,  too,  in  multitudes.  Savagery  will 
not  cure  savagery,  and  the  tiger  cannot  tame 

in 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

the  leopard.  Mr.  Dixon  seems  to  see  this 
when  he  speaks  of  the  mob  as  a  thousand- 
legged  beast,  and  anticipates  with  dread  the 
time  when  there  will  be  a  black  beast  of  the 
same  kind  to  set  off  against  the  white  beast.  He 
thinks  that  the  permanent  display  of  force 
by  the  whites  is  the  best  remedy,  and  forgets, 
Christian  minister  though  he  be,  that  the  effi 
cacy  of  sympathy  and  brotherly  interest  has 
scarcely  been  tried.  The  race  question  is  no 
simple  matter  to  be  settled  at  a  thousand 
miles'  distance  by  academic  theories;  but  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  it  will  only  be  solved  by 
the  spirit  of  love,  and  that  Booker  Washing 
ton  shows  far  more  of  this  than  the  author 
of  "The  Leopard's  Spots."  Mr.  Dixon  may 
not  know  it,  but  he  seems  to  believe  in  a 
gospel  of  hate.  One  of  the  heroes  of  the 
book,  an  ex-Confederate  common  soldier, 
admits  that  he  hates  the  very  sight  of  a 
Negro,  and  this  before  the  period  of  recon 
struction  had  set  in  and  when  the  Negro  had 
done  nothing  but  work  and  suffer.  There  is 
a  total  lack  of  measure,  too,  in  the  punish 
ments  meted  to  the  black  man  in  this  novel. 
One  of  them  asks  a  white  woman  to  kiss 
him.  He  makes  no  effort  to  force  her  to 
comply,  but  he  is  speedily  hanged.  "His 
thick  lips  had  been  split  with  a  sharp  knife, 
and  from  his  teeth  hung  this  placard:  'The 
answer  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  to  Negro 

112 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

lips  that  dare  pollute  with  words  the  woman 
hood  of  the  South/  "  There  is  no  hint  in  the 
story  that  this  penalty  was  slightly  excessive, 
nor  that  a  gentleman  need  hesitate  in  taking 
part  in  such  an  execution.  In  another  place 
a  Negro  trooper  refuses  to  make  room  on  a 
sidewalk  for  a  lady  and  her  male  escort.  He 
is  at  once  beaten  to  death.  Surely  this  is 
the  spirit  of  the  tiger. 

Mr.  Dixon's  ideal  Negro  is  the  old  planta 
tion  servant  who  despises  his  own  race.  He 
draws  the  picture  of  one  of  them  and  holds 
him  up  to  admiration.  When  the  whites 
overthrow  the  Negro  government,  old  Nelse 
cries,  "Dar  now!  Ain't  I  done  told  you  no 
kinky-headed  niggers  gwine  ter  run  dis 
gov'ment!"  I  humbly  submit  that  such  a 
man  is  really  a  disgrace  to  any  race..  It  is 
on  the  lines  of  self-respect  that  the  Negro 
must  do  his  part  in  solving  the  race  question. 
He  must  learn  his  own  worth,  not  in  the 
spirit  of  boastfulness  nor  of  imitation,  but  in 
the  spirit  of  self-improvement  and  honor.  He 
must  put  down  himself  the  crimes  against 
women  which  are  his  shame,  and  I  have  faith 
that  men  like  Booker  Washington  can  set 
such  a  movement  on  foot.  The  white  clergy 
of  the  South  have  a  tremendous  responsibil 
ity.  They  have  an  influence  far  transcending 
that  of  their  colleagues  in  the  North.  Will 
they  use  it  like  Mr.  Dixon  and  the  ministers 

"3 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

he  creates  in  his  book,  to  foment  misunder 
standings  and  distrust,  or  to  infuse  the  spirit 
of  Christ  into  the  problem?  It  is  surely  dis 
couraging  to  find  the  Episcopal  bishop  of 
Arkansas,  an  Ohioan,  publicly  defending  the 
practice  of  lynching.  We  all  admit  now  that 
the  policy  of  "reconstruction"  was  a  sad 
mistake  and  that  Northern  interference  can 
do  little,  but  it  is  still  possible  to  begin  a  new 
work  of  reconstruction  based  upon  human 
sympathy.  If  the  South  will  undertake  this 
task,  it  will  escape  the  battle  of  the  "beasts" 
which  is  otherwise  inevitable.  Swedenborg 
somewhere  says  that  the  African  race  is  to  be 
the  race  of  love — the  race  of  the  future.  Let 
it  try  to  live  up  to  this  prophecy,  and  set  a 
good  example  to  the  whites.  The  Rev.  Henry 
Richards,  for  many  years  a  missionary  on  the 
Congo,  writes:  "I  believe  the  Anglo-Saxon 
to  be  naturally  far  more  cruel  and  brutal  than 
the  African."  There  should  be  hope  then  for 
the  latter  race. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  there  is  some  truth 
in  the  theory  of  reincarnation,  for  it  affords 
such  grand  opportunities  for  poetic  justice. 
If  there  is  anything  in  it,  the  author  of  "The 
Negro  a  Beast"  should  make  his  next  ap 
pearance  as  a  full-blooded  Congo  black;  the 
author  of  "Leopard's  Spots"  would  figure 
among  the  mulattos  from  whom  he  wishes 
to  save  us ;  and  the  author  of  "Up  From  Sla- 

114 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

very" — well — if  any  man  has  earned  the  right 
to  the  whitest  of  skins  (if  he  would  like  to 
have  one)  it  is  Booker  Washington.  And  if 
these  three  gentlemen  came  on  the  stage 
again  together,  I  am  confident  that  we  should 
find  the  last  of  the  three  exerting  his  powers 
for  the  benefit  of  the  other  two  in  a  spirit  of 
love  to  which  they  are  total  strangers. 

And  I  cannot  refrain  from  adding  an  anec 
dote  or  two  from  my  own  experience  to  show 
the  perpetual  atmosphere  of  explosives  in 
which  the  Southerner  lives  as  a  result  of  the 
war.  We  are  bad  enough  in  the  North,  what 
with  the  enormous  number  of  our  homicides, 
the  not  unusual  habit  of  carrying  revolvers, 
and  the  craze  for  militarism,  battleships  and 
warfare;  but  all  these  faults  are  aggravated 
in  the  South,  and  it  seems  a  natural  result 
of  the  great  war. 

I  formed  one  of  a  group  one  evening  sit 
ting  around  the  stove  in  the  hotel  office  of 
a  Southern  town.  There  were  three  or  four 
commercial  men,  and  one  old  graybeard  who 
seemed  to  be  related  in  some  way  to  the 
proprietor  and  who  was  the  living  image  of 
Walt  Whitman.  From  time  to  time  he  poked 
the  fire  with  an  old  sword,  which  continual 
use  of  the  kind  had  reduced  to  half  its  origi 
nal  length. 

"You  used  that  all  through  the  wa',  didn't 
you,  Uncle  Joe?"  said  one  of  the  party,  spit- 

"5 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

ting  into  the  sandbox  which  held  the  stove. 
The  old  man  nodded  assent,  but  like  a  mod 
est  man  he  showed  no  desire  to  enlarge  on 
the  subject.  He  gave  the  sword  a  shove  into 
the  sand  and  drew  back  into  his  wooden 
chair.  I  looked  with  approval  on  the  con 
verted  weapon.  It  was  even  better  than  a 
spear-made  pruning  hook,  for  there  had  been 
no  unnecessary  labor  of  remanufacture  and 
no  disguise  of  the  happy  change  of  function. 
A  young  Tennesseean  was  expatiating  upon 
the  merits  of  his  house  paint.  He  had  for 
merly  been  in  the  tobacco  business  and  had 
sold  snuff  in  regions  where  the  whole  popu 
lation,  men,  women  and  children,  chew  the 
vile  stuff  until  they  reek  with  it.  Now  he 
was  helping  to  beautify  and  preserve  the 
weather-stained  houses  of  the  countryside, 
and  I  felt  that  he  had  been  reclaimed  as  well 
as  the  sword.  We  were,  barring  the  spitting, 
a  pleasant,  cheerful  and  sociable  company. 

Suddenly  a  draft  of  air  came  in  upon  us 
and  we  could  hear  a  commotion  at  the  outer 
door,  dominated  by  the  agreeable  deep- 
chested  voice  of  a  man,  who  was  saluting  the 
landlord.  Soon  they  came  in  to  the  desk, 
two  Negroes  carrying  luggage  behind  them. 
In  a  moment  the  stove  was  deserted  and  all 
of  my  companions  gathered  around  the  new 
arrival.  He  was  a  large  man  of  middle  age 
with  a  gray  mustache  and  ruddy  face,  at 

116 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

once  strong  in  its  lines  and  good  natured. 
My  friends  approached  him  respectfully  and 
without  any  sign  of  their  customary  familiar 
ity,  and  as  he  shook  hands  with  them  there 
was  a  pleasant  word  for  each.  And  then  in 
his  hearty  voice  he  explained  that  his  train 
was  ten  hours  late  and  that  he  must  get  on 
to  such  and  such  a  town  that  evening,  and 
there  was  a  general  giving  of  advice  and  tele 
phoning  and  consulting  of  timetables  until 
it  was  proven  beyond  peradventure  that  it 
was  impossible  for  him  to  proceed  until  the 
morrow. 

Meanwhile  I  felt  rather  "out  of  it,"  and 
at  an  early  stage  of  the  proceedings  good 
old  Uncle  Joe  took  pity  upon  me,  and  coming 
over  to  me  whispered: 

"You  know  who  that  is,  don't  you?" 

I  acknowledged  with  shame  that  I  did  not, 
and  with  a  look  of  blank  amazement,  he 
added : 

"Why,  that's  Major  Bedford!"  as  if  the 
announcement  would  surely  startle  me.  I 
fear  that  my  expression  was  unsatisfactory 
to  him,  for  there  was  sorrow  in  his  tone  as 
he  explained  to  the  benighted  Yankee  that 
Major  Bedford  was  the  biggest  lawyer  in 
West  Carobama,  and  that  only  last  month 
he  got  Hank  Martin  off,  though  everybody 
knew  he  had  chucked  Sam  Davis  into  the 
well. 

117 


Garrison   the    Non-Resistant 

By  this  time  the  Major  had  gone  in  to  sup 
per  and  my  friends  resumed  their  seats 
around  the  stove,  while  a  chorus  of  admira 
tion  for  the  great  lawyer  filled  the  smoky  air. 
When  it  at  last  subsided,  one  rather  sullen 
individual  who  was  opposite  me  said  drily: 

"He's  a  mean  man,  though,"  and  then  to 
my  surprise,  one  by  one  the  others  nodded 
their  heads  and  echoed: 

"Yes,  he  /s  a  mean  man." 

I  could  not  account  for  this  apparent 
change  of  opinion,  and  I  ventured  to  ask  for 
light. 

"I  don't  quite  understand,"  I  said.  "You 
were  all  praising  him  a  minute  ago,  and  he 
certainly  seems  to  be  very  good  natured  and 
genial.  How  can  he  be  a  mean  man?" 

"You  see,  he  shoots  pretty  quick.  D'you 
remember  how  he  shot  Jim  Foster  in  court? 
Why,  that  young  fellow  was  the  most  prom 
ising  lawyer  in  the  State,  and  he  had  a  case 
against  the  Major,  and  I  don't  know  how  it 
was,  but  he  got  excited  and  said  somebody 
lied,  and  probably  they  had,  and  out  the 
Major  whips  his  six-shooter  and  shot  the 
boy  dead  as  a  doornail." 

"Is  it  possible,"  I  cried,  "and  how  did  he 
escape  hanging?" 

"Self-defense,"  was  the  laconic  reply.  This 
was  my  first  lesson  in  the  Southern  significa 
tion  of  the  word  "mean,"  but  a  few  days  later 

118 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

my  education  in  this  respect  was  completed, 
and  I  shall  never  again  misunderstand  the 
word  in  that  latitude. 

It  happened  this  way.  I  had  taken  a  room 
for  the  night  in  a  poor  hotel  (which  is  a 
rather  uncommon  thing  in  the  South).  My 
bedroom  was  not  a  comfortable  place  and 
the  tobacco  stains  on  the  walls  were  revolt 
ing.  The  bed  was  a  bad  one,  too,  and  it  took 
me  a  long  time  to  fall  asleep,  but  at  last  I 
succeeded.  I  must  have  been  sleeping  for 
two  or  three  hours  when  I  heard  a  loud  call 
in  the  hallway,  "Waitah!  waitah!"  Then 
followed  in  an  undertone  a  string  of  drunken, 
incoherent  imprecations.  "Dam*  shame! 
Never  come  here  again.  Treat  a  gen'leman 
so,"  with  a  series  of  unrepeatable  oaths  get 
ting  louder  and  louder  until  he  bellowed  out 
again,  "Waitah,  waitah!  where's  my  room, 
waitah!"  I  could  hear  the  man  shuffling 
along  the  corridor,  falling  from  time  to  time, 
and  trying  the  doors  as  he  passed,  while  the 
various  inmates  of  the  rooms,  with  greater  or 
less  eloquence,  called  down  curses  upon  his 
head.  I  expected  from  moment  to  moment  to 
hear  the  report  of  a  revolver,  and  I  won 
dered  how  much  of  an  obstruction  my  door 
would  offer  to  a  bullet,  and  was  quite  pre 
pared  to  slide  down  behind  the  bed  in  case 
he  should  try  to  get  into  my  room.  I  watched 
the  disturbance  auricularly  as  I  have  often 

119 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

watched  a  thunderstorm.  At  one  moment  it 
would  be  raging  outside  of  my  door;  then  it 
would  gradually  move  along,  the  explosions 
and  crashes  becoming  less  distinct  until  the 
storm  center  passed  quite  out  of  my  horizon, 
the  unhappy  guest  having  reached  a  distant 
part  of  the  hotel.  Then  just  as  I  was  dozing 
off,  I  would  hear  the  faint  echoes  of  his  cry, 
"Waitah,  waitah !"  and  it  would  grow  stronger 
and  stronger  until  he  would  fall  in  a  heap 
again  close  to  my  quarters,  spluttering,  mut 
tering  and  cursing  worse  than  before.  Three 
or  four  times  the  storm  cloud  disappeared  in 
the  distance,  and  three  or  four  times  back 
it  came,  until  I  was  in  despair.  But  once 
again  it  was  slowly  blown  away,  WAITAH  ! 
Waitah  1  Waitah!"  and  I  heard  it  no  more. 

It  was  nearly  nine  o'clock  when  I  came  in 
to  breakfast  in  the  morning  and  took  my 
seat  at  a  table  occupied  by  two  "drummers," 
who  were  conversing  with  each  other. 

"Tollable  lively  night,"  remarked  one  of 
them,  whom  I  shall  call  Smith. 

"Yes,"  said  I.  "Who  on  earth  was  that 
man,  and  what  ever  became  of  him?" 

"It's  Pete  Bunker,"  replied  the  man.  "Don't 
you  know  Pete?  Why,  the  Bunkers  are  one 
of  the  best  families  in  these  parts.  The  cook 
found  him  in  the  kitchen  this  morning  sitting 
at  the  table  fast  asleep  with  his  head  on  his 
arms.  He  came  out  of  his  room  for  somc- 

120 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

thing  or  other,  and  couldn't  find  it  again. 
But  Pete  don't  often  get  drunk  like  that. 
He's  a  good  fellow  when  he's  sober." 

"He's  a  mean  man,  though,  sometimes," 
said  the  other.  "Do  you  remember  how  he 
shot  that  nigger  Simpson?  That  was  six 
years  ago,  and  the  boy  can't  walk  to-day. 
He  done  for  him,  he  did.  And  Simpson, 
hadn't  done  nothin',  either." 

"Did  they  try  him  for  it?"  I  asked. 

"Naw,"  was  the  reply,  and  the  two  men 
looked  at  me  in  wonder. 

"I  reckon  he  left  his  gun  in  his  room  last 
night,"  said  Smith.  "It  was  pretty  lucky. 
But  there  hain't  been  any  shootin'  in  town 
lately.  When  was  the  last  shootin',  Dave?" 

"A  year  ago  Christmas,"  answered  Dave. 
"That  Jake  Hart  scrimmage.  You  remember. 
Jake  got  angry  at  Cy  Jones  and  shot  him 
dead.  Jake  was  an  awful  nice  fellow,  but  I 
must  say  he  was  a  mean  one.  And  then 
Tom  Spear — he  was  sheriff — he  said  he'd 
arrest  him  if  it  took  him  ten  years,  and  Jake, 
he  said  he  shouldn't.  I  met  Jake  in  the 
street  one  day,  and  he  says  to  me,  says  he, 
'Just  you  tell  Tom  Spear  that  I  like  him 
first  rate/  says  he;  'he's  done  me  a  lot  of 
good  turns  and  I'd  like  to  do  him  a  good 
turn,  too;  but  just  you  tell  him  that  if  he 
tries  to  grab  me  I'll  shoot  him  at  sight  like 
a  dog,  I  will,'  says  he.  'Just  tell  him  that.' 

121 


Garrison    the    Non-Resistant 

And  I  told  Tom  sure  enough,  and  he  got 
three  fellers  to  go  with  him.  He  wanted  me 
to  go  with  him,  but  I  wouldn't — not  much. 
I  knowed  that  Jake  Hart  was  a  mean  man. 
But  he  went  with  three  of  'em,  and  they 
heard  Jake  was  at  Tim  Brown's,  and  they 
went  upstairs  and  opened  the  door;  and 
Jake,  just  as  quiet  as  I  am,  he  shoots  Tom 
Spear  dead;  and  then  the  next  feller  shoots 
Jake  right  through  the  chest,  and  he  falls 
down,  but  he  sits  up  again  and  draws  a  bead 
on  number  two,  and  down  he  goes,  and  then 
he  shoots  number  three,  and  the  fourth  man 
he  thought  he'd  better  stay  downstairs.  That 
was  Christmas  Eve,  and  they  buried  all  four 
of  'em  together.  Ther  hain't  been  any 
shootin'  in  town  since  then." 

"Yes,  Jake  was  a  mean  cuss,"  said  Smith, 
"but  I  liked  him  first  rate."  And  we  finished 
our  buckwheat  cakes  in  silence. 

If  Garrison  were  alive  and  could  visit  the 
South  to-day  and  read  "Up  From  Slavery," 
"The  Leopard's  Spots"  and  "The  Negro  a 
Beast,"  he  would  find  sufficient  reasons  for 
congratulating  himself  upon  his  course. 
Slavery  was  a  crying  evil.  In  a  thousand 
ways  it  was  a  disgrace  to  his  country  and  to 
mankind,  and  it  should  have  been  abolished; 
but  it  was  abolished  the  wrong  way.  The 
Negro  is  far  better  off  as  a  wage  earner  than 
he  was  as  a  slave,  but  the  hostility  between 

122 


Results  of  the  War  in  the  South 

the  races  has  been  intensified  by  the  rude 
and  ruthless  manner  of  bringing  the  change 
about.  And  besides  this,  the  habits  of  four 
years  of  licensed  slaughter,  arson,  rape  and 
rapine  have  corrupted  both  races;  and  not 
the  least  of  the  evil  legacies  of  the  war  is  the 
revolver,  an  instrument  manufactured  only 
for  manslaughter — a  miserable,  crooked  little 
vermin  which  is  gnawing  its  way  into  the 
vitals  of  the  community  and  destroying  civ 
ilization  in  its  path.  It  ought  to  be  denounced 
in  every  pulpit  and  boycotted  in  every  decent 
assembly  of  men.  It  is  a  nuisance  which 
must  be  abated  before  the  South  can  enter 
tain  any  just  ,„  expectation  of  rivaling  the 
North.  She  is  hopelessly  handicapped  by 
her  "mean  men." 

Garrison  believed  as  fully  in  the  abolition 
of  war  as  in  the  abolition  of  slavery.  He 
did  not  believe  in  doing  evil  that  good  may 
come.  But  he  was  overruled,  and  with  the 
good  came  a  vast  cloud  of  evils  which  still 
cast  their  shadow  thick  upon  the  land. 


123 


CHAPTER    XII 

PRACTICAL   LESSONS    FROM    GARRI 
SON'S  CAREER 

God  is  our  guide!    No  swords  we  draw, 

We  kindle  not  war's  battle-fires; 
By  union,  justice,  reason,  law, 

We  claim  the  birthright  of  our  sires. 
We  raise  the  watchword,  Liberty — 
We  will,  we  will,  we  will  be  free! 

—"Songs  of  Freedom"  (Anon.),  page  80. 

The  abolition  of  American  slavery  was  a 
single  step  in  the  long  march  of  the  human 
race  toward  freedom  and  a  state  of  peaceful 
social  equilibrium  undisturbed  by  the  coer 
cion  of  man  by  man,  and  Garrison  was  one 
of  the  few  great  leaders  of  such  movements 
who  appreciated  the  wider  significance  of 
his  particular  task.  Mankind  has  always 
been  engaged  in  this  march  and  perhaps 
always  will  be.  We  are  taking  such  steps 
to-day,  and  the  efforts  to  overthrow  imperial 
ism,  militarism,  plutocracy,  monopoly  and  all 
other  forms  of  trespass  on  the  rights  of 
man  are  further  steps  on  the  road  of 
emancipation.  We  may  well  then  find  sug 
gestions  in  the  Abolition  movement  which 

124 


Lessons   from   Garrison's    Career 

will  be  of  value  in  forming  a  diagnosis  of 
present  conditions  and  seeking  a  remedy  for 
existing  ills. 

(i)  And  first  of  all,  the  Abolition  move 
ment  was  initiated  by  people  of  humble  rank 
in  society.  Garrison  began  life  as  a  cobbler's 
apprentice,  and  Lundy  was  a  saddler.  Even 
when  the  war  broke  out  very  few  persons  of 
prominence  in  society  had  taken  their  place 
among  the  Abolitionists,  and  those  who  did, 
such  as  Wendell  Phillips  and  Edmund  Quincy, 
were  more  or  less  ostracised  and  maligned.  It 
was  never  "respectable"  to  be  an  Abolitionist. 
And  it  is  true  of  all  great  social  movements 
that  their  origin  has  been  outside  the  pale 
of  the  "upper  classes."  Growth  does  not 
begin  at  the  top,  and  a  healthy,  vigorous,  just 
cause  cannot  in  the  nature  of  things  be 
respectable  at  first;  and  just  in  proportion 
as  it  becomes  respectable  it  loses  its  energy 
and  single-mindedness.  And  this  estrange 
ment  of  the  wealth  and  culture  of  the  day  gives 
rise  to  all  sorts  of  libelous  stories  regarding 
reformers.  Because  Garrison  and  his  follow 
ers  were  not  in  "society"  they  were  looked 
upon  by  "society"  with  contempt,  and  it 
became  easy  to  stigmatize  them  as  infidels, 
blasphemers  and  Sabbath-breakers,  and  they 
were  accused  of  endeavoring  to  foment  insur 
rection  among  the  slaves.  Nothing  was  too 
vile  or  too  criminal  to  be  ascribed  to  them, 

125 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

although  they  were,  in  fact,  the  most  relig 
ious  and  puritanic  of  people.  It  requires  wise 
men,  indeed,  to  look  for  contemporary  his 
tory,  not  in  the  Capitol  of  Rome  or  of  Wash 
ington,  but  in  the  manger  and  the  attic. 

(2)  The  churches  were  unanimously  hos 
tile  to  Garrison  and  the  Abolitionists.  Here 
and  there  a  stray  clergyman  had  the  courage 
to  support  them,  but  it  was  at  the  risk  of  his 
reputation  in  his  denomination,  and  most  of 
these  declared  themselves  only  when  the  cause 
was  far  advanced.  Garrison  and  many  of  his 
friends  retorted  by  cutting  loose  from  all 
ecclesiastical  organizations.  Their  new  wine 
was  too  strong  for  the  old  bottles,  and  it 
always  is.  The  movement  for  peace  to-day 
is  obstructed  by  the  churches  just  as  emanci 
pation  was,  and  almost  any  church  meeting  is 
ready  to  shout  for  any  war,  however  diabolical, 
in  which  its  country  may  be  engaged,  while 
"infidels"  and  skeptics  and  materialists  out 
side  take  up  the  cause  of  Christian  brother 
hood.  Only  last  week  (as  I  write)  in  Phila 
delphia  (the  City  of  Brotherly  Love)  the 
Pennsylvania  Division,  United  Boys'  Brigade 
of  America,  "in  full  military  uniform,"  was 
reviewed  by  the  State  Commander  and 
addressed  by  the  reverend  and  distinguished 
chaplain.  There  were  companies  from  the 
Presbyterian,  Methodist,  Congregational, 
Reformed,  Episcopal,  Reformed  Episcopal 

126 


Lessons  from  Garrison's  Career 

and  Moravian  churches,  and  one  company 
from  Holy  Trinity  Church  was  named  after 
the  "Prince  of  Peace" !  What  would  William 
Penn  and  the  early  Moravians  have  said  of 
it?  And  Episcopal  missionaries  have  intro 
duced  the  Brigade  into  China,  a  nation  which 
looks  down  on  war.  If  lovers  of  peace  leave 
the  church  as  the  Abolitionists  did,  they  may 
find  more  Christianity  without,  and  they  will 
not  be  without  good  precedents  for  their  action. 
There  is  something  petrifying  and  deadening 
in  institutionalism  of  all  kinds,  sacred  and 
profane,  and  a  church  cannot  in  the  very 
nature  of  things  (except  at  its  very  incep 
tion)  be  a  pioneer  in  social  progress.  We 
must  be  satisfied  if  it  does  not  fall  back  too 
far  in  the  rear.  Institutions  of  learning  fall 
into  the  same  category,  and  their  general 
influence  during  the  years  of  anti-slavery 
activity  was  uniformly  reactionary.  Those 
who  expect  to  find  guidance  now  or  at  any 
time  for  the  advance  of  society  in  the 
churches  or  universities  are  asking  impossi 
bilities  and  neglecting  one  of  the  plainest 
lessons  of  history — namely,  that  the  priest 
and  the  professor  are  rarely  in  the  van. 

(3)  Garrison  and  the  Abolitionists  found 
themselves  arrayed  perforce  against  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  these  laws,  as  they  were 
carried  out  by  presidents,  governors,  legisla 
tors  and  judges,  were  among  the  chief 

127 


Garrison  the   Non-Resistant 

obstacles  in  the  path  of  justice.  Almost  all 
the  disturbances  caused  at  anti-slavery  meet 
ings — frequently  ending  in  personal  violence 
and  arson — had  the  scarcely  disguised  sym 
pathy  of  the  authorities,  and  the  law  was  suc 
cessfully  invoked  to  spread  slavery  and  return 
the  fugitive  slave.  The  leading  statesmen 
and  politicians  of  the  country,  with  hardly 
a  single  exception,  did  what  they  could  for 
slavery  as  long  as  they  thought  that  cause 
advantageous  to  their  fortunes.  They  had 
substituted  paper  and  ink  for  their  own  con 
sciences,  and  had  forgotten  the  primitive  obli 
gations  of  man  in  the  artificial  claims  of  their 
oaths  of  office.  This  is  surely  inhuman. 
How  does  a  bad  law  or  a  bad  constitution 
differ  from  any  other  bad  thing?  We  can 
not  throw  the  blame  for  our  acts  upon  parch 
ment  and  legal-cap.  While  a  bill  is  on  its  pas 
sage  in  the  legislature  we  do  not  hesitate  to 
charge  improper  motives  against  the  mem 
bers,  and  we  often  detect  log  rolling  and 
even  bribery  and  corruption.  But  when  the 
bill  has  triumphed  over  our  protests  and 
become  a  law  we  straightway  fall  down  on 
our  knees  before  it.  Is  not  this  fetish- 
worship?  We  talk  of  the  majesty  of  the  law 
as  we  used  to  talk  of  the  majesty  of  our 
rulers;  but  the  two  absurdities  must  vanish 
together,  for  laws  are  not  a  whit  more  majes 
tic  than  those  who  make  and  enforce  them. 

128 


Lessons   from   Garrison's   Career 

There,  may  be  majesty  in  a  good  law  or  a 
good  man,  but  there  is  none  whatever  in  bad 
laws  or  bad  men.  It  is,  I  say,  nothing  but 
fetish-worship — the  same  spirit  which  induced 
the  Egyptians  to  sacrifice  virgins  to  the  rising 
Nile,  and  forced  Jephthah  to  slay  his  daugh 
ter  Jephthah  had  taken  an  oath,  just  as  the 
pro-slavery  Northern  judges  and  sheriffs  had 
taken  oaths;  but  it  was  an  oath  better 
honored  in  the  breach  than  in  the  observ 
ance,  and  there  are  crimes  worse  than  per 
jury  of  this  kind.  But  there  was  really  no 
dilemma  for  the  honest  man.  He  could  at 
any  moment  resign  his  office.  And  oaths  of 
office  are  medieval  institutions  which  have 
unfortunately  survived  a  great  deal  of  simi 
lar  rubbish.  No  bank  president  or  railway 
director  has  to  swear  upon  the  Bible.  Why 
should  our  political  people  be  obliged  to? 
The  oath  has  no  effect  upon  a  bad  man,  while 
it  can  do  nothing  but  worry  a  good  one.  We 
have  got  rid  of  the  comparatively  harmless 
folly  of  the  coronation  ceremony,  and  our 
judges  and  senators  do  not  sit  in  solemn 
conclave  to  determine  who  shall  carry  the 
king's  saltspoon  or  warming-pan  in  proces 
sion,  but  we  have  kept  the  most  dangerous 
feature  of  all,  the  coronation  oath — the  oath 
of  office.  It  was  this  oath  taken  by  George 
III  whkh  cost  his  country  dearly.  We  upset 
the  tyranny  of  George  III,  but  the  tyranny 

129 


Garrison  the  Non-Resistant 

of  the  oath  still  flourishes.  The  late  Senator 
Tim  Campbell,  a  local  politician  of  some 
fame  in  the  City  of  New  York,  once  astounded 
the  legislature  by  exclaiming  during  an  acri 
monious  debate,  "What  is  a  little  thing  like 
the  Constitution  between  friends?"  There 
was  a  certain  elemental  truth  in  this  state 
ment.  Laws  and  constitutions  are  made  for 
men,  and  not  men  for. laws  and  constitutions. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Garrison  denounced 
the  legal  obstacles  which  stood  in  his  way. 
The  Abolitionists  were  ready  to  revolt,  pas 
sively,  against  the  government,  and  the  con 
vention  in  Massachusetts  demanded  the  seces 
sion  of  the  North.  The  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  was  a  "covenant  with  death 
and  hell,"  and  there  must  be  no  "Union"  with 
slave-holders.  Thoreau  issued  a  personal  dec 
laration  of  independence  and  seceded  by  him 
self  from  the  Union.  He  filed  the  following 
document  with  the  town  clerk:  "Know  all 
men  by  these  presents  that  I,  Henry  Thoreau, 
do  not  wish  to  be  regarded  as  a  member  of 
any  incorporated  society  which  I  have  not 
joined."1 

And  Garrison  had  as  little  affection  for  the 
government  as  Thoreau.  He  would  not  even 
use  it  for  his  own  ends,  beyond  petitioning  it ; 
and  I  suppose  a  man  might  address  a  petition 

1  Essay  on  the  Duty  of  Civil  Disobedience. 
130 


Lessons  from   Garrison's   Career 

to  any  institution  without  any  implied 
approval  of  it.  He  showed  by  the  vitality 
of  his  own  influence  that  the  true  life  of  a 
community  is  independent  and  outside  of 
its  governmental  forms.  God  is  not  in  the 
court  or  the  legislature,  but  in  the  human 
soul,  and  courts  and  legislatures  are  the  last 
places  in  which  to  find  that  vital  spark.  Take 
our  national  political  system  as  it  is  centered 
in  Washington,  and  the  one  crowning  con 
demnation  of  it  is  that  it  is  not  the  Real 
Thing.  It  is  an  empty  illusion.  Like  the 
church  of  Sardis,  it  has  a  name  that  it  lives, 
and  is  dead.  There  is  a  question  that  lies 
deeper  than  the  one  of  good  and  evil,  and 
right  and  wrong.  It  is  the  question  of  vital 
ity.  The  Real  Thing  may  be  good  or  bad, 
but  it  must  be  alive.  God  is  the  Real  Thing 
and  the  devil  is  the  Real  Thing,  and  in 
between  all  are  the  shams  and  make-believes 
and  hypocrisies  that  make  up  such  a  large 
part  of  existence.  And  the  indictment  of 
Washington  is  that  it  is  a  sham.  There  is 
something  great  in  the  idea  of  ruling.  Even 
with  all  the  cruelties  of  Cortez  and  Genghis 
Khan,  governing  is  a  great  thing — a  crime, 
a  sin,  an  evil,  if  you  will — but  still  great. 
But  Washington  does  not  rule.  It  has  a 
name  that  it  rules,  and  is  a  slave.  Once  it 
was  ruled  by  the  oligarchy  of  Southern  land 
holders  and  slave-holders.  To-day  it  is  ruled 

131 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

by  the  oligarchy  of  finance.  Dig  in  Pennsyl 
vania  avenue  and  you  will  soon  find  Wall 
street  under  the  surface. 

Washington  is  not  the  Real  Thing.  Osten 
sible,  nominal  governments  rarely  are.  At 
their  inauguration  they  are  genuine;  but 
nations  grow  and  their  forms  of  government 
do  not  keep  pace  with  their  growth,  and  the 
power  gradually  passes  into  other  channels 
and  comes  from  other  sources,  and  yet  the 
old  forms  continue  for  ages  after  the  life 
has  left  them  and  people  still  bow  down  to 
the  empty  shell.  The  Senate  survived  in 
Rome  long  after  the  Emperor  had  become 
an  autocrat.  He  deferred  to  the  Senate  in 
form,  as  long  as  it  made  no  effort  to  assert 
itself.  And  so  to-day  we  speak  of  Senators 
from  Colorado  or  New  Jersey  or  Connecticut, 
and  the  President  of  the  Senate  so  addresses 
them  from  the  chair.  If  he  expressed  the 
truth  he  would  recognize  them  as  the  Sena 
tors  from  this,  that  or  the  other  railway  com 
bination,  or  from  such  and  such  a  trust.  The 
old  power  that  lay  in  the  people  of  the  States 
has  become  absorbed  by  the  vast  aggrega 
tions  of  wealth,  and  the  vitality  has  passed 
from  our  politics  into  our  economics.  A 
revolution  as  great  as  that  of  Rome  has 
taken  place,  and  the  public  does  not  yet 
appreciate  the  fact. 

It  is  easy  to  say  hard  and  true  things  of 

132 


Lessons   from   Garrison's   Career 

Wall  Street,  but  that  tortuous  and  narrow 
thoroughfare,  with  its  skyscrapers  overawing 
the  forgotten  church  in  the  graveyard  at  its 
head,  has  after  all  the  one  supreme  virtue — 
it  is  the  Real  Thing.  No  one  can  question 
its  abundant  vitality,  its  vigor,  its  dominating 
influence.  It  has  drawn  to  itself  the  national 
center  of  gravity.  It  rules,  and  Washington 
is  only  one  of  its  pawns.  Wall  Street  leaves 
the  gilded  imitation  organ  pipes  to  the  states 
men;  and  plays  its  own  tunes  behind  them. 
It  has  the  sense  to  prefer  power  to  show. 
The  men  who  rule  in  Wall  Street  do  not  care 
to  have  their  names  appear  in  the  newspa 
pers.  They  avoid  it,  and  they  leave  the  field 
of  self-advertisement  to  the  politicians  who 
swim  on  the  surface  and  carry  out  their 
behests. 

Garrison  was  justified  in  his  distrust  of 
politicians  and  political  methods,  and  in 
addressing  himself  to  the  living  heart  of  the 
people  and  leaving  their  officeholders  and 
their  Capital  alone.  The  atmosphere  of  Wash 
ington  would  have  been  stifling  to  such  a 
frank  and  outspoken  man,  and  he  would  have 
been  out  of  his  element  in  Congress.  Service 
is  higher  than  office.  Someone  must  needs 
be  President,  but  to  live  for  others  is  the 
special  gift  of  God.  The  real  life  of  the  nation 
is  not  to  be  found  at  Washington.  That  fair 
city,  with  its  marble  monuments,  its  memorial 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

statues,  recalling  so  many  hatreds  and  slaugh 
ters  of  the  past,  and  its  well-kept  lawns  and 
drives,  reminds  me  of  nothing  so  much  as  a 
beautiful  cemetery — another  Woodlawn  or 
Greenwood — where  all  is  dead,  with  no  man 
ufactures,  no  agriculture,  no  natural  industry 
— peopled  by  nothing  but  the  mere  effigies 
of  men  and  women  and  hiding  a  festering 
mass  of  corruption.  Such  will  never  be  the 
source  of  any  true  reform. 

(4)  The    message    of  Garrison   was   based 
on  abstract  morality,  and  never  deviated  a 
hair's    breadth  one    way     or    the     other    on 
account    of    any    discrepancy    between    the 
exigencies    of   theory   and  those   of   practice. 
We  have  seen  that  there  is  sometimes  such 
a  discrepancy,  but  the  greatest  teachers  have 
always  risen  above  it.  It  was  Lundy's  attempt 
to  postpone  the  immediate  claims  of  emanci 
pation  which  weakened  his  mission. 

(5)  Garrison's  message,    though    springing 
from  a   spirit   of   unusual   gentleness,    which 
condemned  all  recourse  to  physical  force,  was 
couched  in  the  stern  and  inexorable  language 
of    absolute    truth.     The    greatest    teachers 
have  never  been  mealy-mouthed.     The  word 
of  God  is  a  two-edged  sword,  and  one  which 
should  not  be  beaten  into  ploughshares.     It 
was    a    true    instinct    which    made    Garrison 
severe  as  all  the  prophets  have  been  severe. 

These  five  attributes  of  the  cause  of  Aboli- 

134 


Lessons    from   Garrison's    Career 

tion  (and  there  are  doubtless  many  others 
which  escape  me)  are,  I  believe,  the  hall 
marks  of  all  great  reforms.  We  recognize 
them  at  once  in  the  history  of  the  early 
Christians.  They,  too,  counted  among  them 
"not  many  wise  men,  not  many  mighty,  not 
many  noble";  and  the  truth  which  they 
preached  was  hidden  from  the  wise  and 
prudent  and  revealed  only  unto  babes.  They, 
too,  were  charged  with  stirring  up  the  peo 
ple  and  turning  the  world  upside  down,  with 
uttering  blasphemy  and  breaking  the  Sab 
bath.  Against  them  the  chief  priests  and 
rulers,  the  Caiaphases  and  Herods  and 
Pilates,  presented  an  unbroken  front.  They 
also  asserted  principles  with  which  for  a 
time  at  least  they  justified  no  compromise, 
and  their  Founder,  while  setting  them  an 
example  of  suffering  without  lifting  a  hand 
in  his  defense,  attacked  the  respectable  sin 
ners  of  the  day  in  language  which  has  not  yet 
lost  its  sting. 

We  do  well  to  question  the  value  of  any 
reform  which  does  not  unite  these  features. 
Any  movement  which  has  its  source  and 
chief  support  among  the  great  and  wealthy 
and  learned,  which  is  never  accused  of  rous 
ing  the  passions  of  the  oppressed  or  of  run 
ning  counter  to  the  prevailing  religion  of 
the  time,  which  finds  Church  or  State  friendly 
and  complaisant,  which  is  ready  to  yield  an 

135 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

iota  in  matters  of  principle,  which  hesitates 
to  denounce  where  denunciation  is  due,  and 
which  finally  places  its  reliance  in  anything 
but  the  power  of  truth — any  such  movement, 
if  it  be  weighed,  will  be  found  wanting  in  the 
elements  inherent  in  a  great  cause. 

Are  we  ready  to  learn  these  lessons,  and 
above  all  to  adopt  the  methods  of  peace? 
They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the 
sword.  How  many  a  brilliant  cause  has 
been  brought  to  naught  by  the  folly  of  its 
adherents,  who  sought  to  secure  freedom  by 
the  weapons  of  tyranny!  I  have  recently 
been  reading  the  life  of  a  reformer  who  was 
almost  a  non-resistant — a  man  of  puritanic 
habits  and  simple  life,  and  devoted  with  his 
whole  soul  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  the 
people — and  yet  by  yielding  to  the  temptation 
of  using  violent  means  he  made  his  name  the 
object  of  universal  execration.  Robespierre 
was  until  two  years  or  so  before  his  death  a 
consistent  humanitarian  and  opponent  of 
bloodshed.  It  is  an  historical  fact  that  he 
resigned  a  lucrative  judgeship  because  he  was 
unwilling  to  pronounce  a  sentence  of  death. 
When  the  Revolution  was  well  under  way  he 
proposed  a  bill  for  the  abolition  of  capital 
punishment,  and  made  a  good  fight  for  it. 
He  refused  to  be  a  member  of  a  court  to  try 
royalists,  and  served  on  a  committee  to  pro 
tect  the  royal  family  during  the  September 

136 


Lessons   from   Garrison's   Career 

massacres.  Mobs  always  filled  him  with 
abhorrence;  he  opposed  the  war  with  the 
allies  and  took  every  occasion  to  protest 
against  a  standing  army  on  the  highest  moral 
grounds.  He  was  noted  as  a  friend  of  the 
Church,  even  when  his  friendliness  compro 
mised  his  power,  and  the  Girondists  attacked 
him  on  account  of  his  belief  in  God.  In 
debate  he  was  particularly  fair  minded,  insist 
ing  on  obtaining  a  hearing  for  his  opponents, 
and  never  indulging  in  personalities.  It  was 
with  reluctance  that  he  became  a  member  of 
the  terror  committee,  and  he  invariably 
avoided  signing  the  guillotine  lists  when  he 
could.  Again  and  again  he  denounced  the 
punishment  of  men  for  their  opinions,  no 
matter  what  those  opinions  might  be.  When 
the  Gironde  fell,  it  was  Robespierre  who 
saved  the  Right  from  extermination,  and, 
in  short,  he  was,  as  his  last  biographer, 
Hilaire  Belloc,  says,  "A  man  by  nature 
opposed  to  the  Terror."  Throughout  these 
fearful  times  he  maintained  unaltered  a 
dream  of  a  perfect  state  in  which  all  should 
be  happy  and  all  virtuous.  And  yet  this  man 
gradually  gave  his  consent  to  the  Terror  in 
order  that  he  might  maintain  his  power  and 
realize  his  vision,  until,  familiar  with  its 
frightful  mien,  he  seized  upon  it  as  a  means 
to  his  end,  and  was  finally  destroyed  by  the 
extremists  whom  he  intended  to  kill.  It  is  an 

137 


Garrison   the   Non-Resistant 

undoubted  fact  that  his  plan  was,  after  a  few 
more  days  of  slaughter,  to  abolish  the  revo 
lutionary  court  and  inaugurate  his  Rous- 
seauan  commonwealth;  but  it  is  idle  to  spec 
ulate  as  to  what  might  have  happened  if  he 
had  not  fallen  so  soon.  To  the  end  he 
remained  true  to  some  of  his  ideals.  He 
would  not  consent  to  an  insurrection  in  his 
own  behalf  until  it  was  too  late,  nor  when 
arrested  would  he  accept  release  without  the 
order  of  the  Convention,  for  the  Convention 
represented  his  adored  People.  But  for  this 
delay  his  life  would  have  been  saved. 

How  can  such  a  career  as  Robespierre's  be 
explained?  With  Garrison's  faith  in  the  un 
aided  power  of  the  right,  he  would  have  had  a 
sure  clue  to  follow.  Without  that  faith  no 
man  is  to  be  trusted  in  such  an  environment. 
It  is  difficult  for  us  to  imagine  the  effect  of 
bloodthirsty  surroundings;  and  yet  have  we 
not  seen  in  South  Africa  and  China  and  the 
Philippines  equally  striking  examples  of  it? 
Robespierre  became  finally  a  conspicuous 
incarnation  of  all  that  he  most  hated,  and  he 
reached  this  point  by  adopting  means  which 
he  knew  were  wrong,  to  gain  an  end  in  which 
he  profoundly  believed.  He  dreaded  most  of 
all  to  be  left  out  of  the  stream  of  events — 
dropped  on  one  side  on  account  of  his 
scruples,  and  consequently  he  plunged  in, 
was  sucked  into  the  maelstrom,  and  died, 

138 


Lessons  from   Garrison's   Career 

having  justly  earned  that  reputation  which  of 
all  others  he  would  most  have  deprecated. 
If  he  had  fallen  before  the  trial  of  the  King, 
or  if  he  had  remained  true  to  his  conscience 
and  returned  home  when  he  found  that  he 
could  no  longer  guide  his  country  along  the 
paths  of  peace,  his  name  would  have  gone 
down  in  history  with  Garrison's  as  that  of  a 
benefactor  of  mankind. 

.When  the  time  comes  to  make  another  dis 
tinct  advance  in  that  great  movement  towards 
justice  of  which  the  French  Revolution  and 
the  anti-slavery  agitation  were  episodes,  shall 
we  follow  the  lead  of  Robespierre  or  that  of 
Garrison?  It  is  quite  possible  that  a  revolu 
tion  in  America  to-day  would  end  as  did 
that  of  1789  in  France.  It  will  not  do 
to  pooh-pooh  the  idea  as  monstrous.  Men 
who  can  shoot  down  prisoners  and  administer 
the  water  torture  in  the  Orient  might  have 
no  insuperable  objection  to  the  guillotine  at 
home.  In  the  case  of  some  great  industrial 
crisis  within  the  next  few  years,  when  prac 
tically  all  workmen  are  idle,  let  us  suppose 
that  they  begin  to  riot  in  many  places  at 
once,  and  call  for  the  bread  which  they  can 
not  earn.  The  ordinary  machinery  of  com 
merce  and  of  government  has  broken  down. 
In  the  midst  of  the  disorder  a  national  con 
vention  is  called  and  delegates  flock  to  Wash 
ington,  with  the  mutterings  and  threats  of 

139 


Garrison  the   Non-Resistant 

discontent  and  starvation  in  their  ears.  They 
would  no  longer  be  the  futile  politicians  of 
ordinary  elections — the  absurd  and  ridiculous 
mannikins  who  now  strut  through  the  forms 
of  legislation;  but  real  representatives  of  the 
people,  newly  stirred  to  a  consciousness  of 
their  needs.  I  fancy  I  could  name  a  score  of 
the  delegates — men  and  women  of  the  high 
est  ideals  and  capacity.  Such  a  representa 
tive  body  would  be  certain  to  compare  favor 
ably  from  the  point  of  view  of  ability  with 
the  French  Assembly,  and  it  would  come  to 
gether  with  the  same  lofty  aims  and  the  same 
devotion  to  them.  Would  it  end  in  the  same 
carnival  of  horror?  With  the  example  of 
the  peace-loving  Robespierre  before  us  it  is 
impossible  to  scout  the  idea.  The  only  safe 
guard  against  such  a  danger  is  the  utter 
repudiation  of  all  violent  methods  of  reform. 
Once  permit  yourself  to  rely  upon  rifles  and 
prisons,  and  the  descent  is  easy  to  all  kinds 
of  cruelty  and  torture.  The  lesson  of  all  his 
tory  is  that  men  are  not  to  be  trusted  with 
the  power  of  life  and  death  over  their  fel 
lows;  and  any  revolution  which  claims  for 
itself  any  such  power  carries  in  its  bosom 
the  seeds  of  a  counter  movement  which  will 
bring  in  again  the  supremacy  of  the  party  of 
reaction.  The  best  mental  exercise  for 
reformers  is  to  accustom  themselves  to  the 
idea  of  dispensing  with  the  use  of  physical 

140 


Lessons  from  Garrison's  Career 

force,  and  of  commending  their  cause  to  the 
higher  powers  of  influence,  persuasion  and 
truth. 

And  Garrison  was  the  true  prophet  of  such 
a  peaceful  method.  He  had  the  genuine  spirit 
of  reform  which  we  might  do  well  to  accept 
from  him  as  an  inheritance.  He  was,  indeed, 
to  use  his  friend  Quincy's  words,  uttered  as 
early  as  1838,  "one  of  those  rare  spirits 
which  heaven  at  distant  periods  sends  upon 
the  earth  on  holiest  missions."  He  was,  as 
all  such  men  are,  in  advance  of  his  time, — "too 
great  .  .  to  be  a  representative  man  at 
present,"  as  Harriet  Martineau  declared,  but, 
she  added,  "his  example  may  raise  up  a  class 
hereafter."  Such  an  example  is  indeed  full 
of  inspiration  for  those  who  see  in  the  world 
around  them  many  evils  not  altogether  un 
related  to  those  against  which  Garrison 
struggled  so  long  and  so  faithfully.  But 
wherever  the  cause  of  justice  may  call  us,  let 
us  be  careful  to  go  in  his  spirit,  for,  as  one  of 
his  fellow-workers  truly  said,  "Non-resistance 
is  the  temper  of  mind  in  which  all  enterprises 
for  humanity  should  be  undertaken." 


141 


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